


7 years: Part 1

by thelastmarauder



Series: 7 years [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2020-11-15 09:09:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 54,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20863742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelastmarauder/pseuds/thelastmarauder
Summary: Covering the sixth year at Hogwarts (1976-1977)It was a big big world, but we thought we were biggerPushing each other to the limits, we were learning quicker- Lukas Graham





	1. Mudblood

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter is a rewrite of the Marauders scenes from "Snape's Worst Memory" and "The Prince's Tale", but as seen from James Potter's and Lily Evans' point of view.  
Contains mostly canon dialogue.

_ Thursday, 24 June 1976 _

It was a hot, sunny June day when Lily Evans made her way downstairs for breakfast. Today, the Hogwarts fifth-years would have their Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL-exam, and Transfiguration tomorrow would finish their school year.  
So far Lily had a good feeling about it.  
“All right, Evans?” A voice sounded behind her.  
She turned to face another fifth-year Gryffindor with messy black hair and glasses.  
“I was until now, Potter.” Lily joked.  
“Ow, that hurts!” He clutched his chest dramatically. “So, Defence. Think you’re going to beat me this time?”  
Lily made a face at him. Though she usually tied with Potter and Black for most subjects, Defence Against the Dark Arts was the one subject on which he had the upper hand.  
“How was Charms yesterday?” She asked sweetly. Now it was his turn to grimace.  
“I think I should get at least an E because the fact that I showed up should exceed expectations.”  
She laughed, shaking her head in disbelief.  
“You are impossible! Well, I would wish you good luck, but clearly you won’t need it.”  
She turned away and proceeded to the Great Hall.  
James was still looking after her when someone clapped him on the shoulder.  
“Don’t stare, Prongs. It’s impolite. Not to mention a little creepy.”  
“Shut up, Padfoot.” James blushed. Without another word at his friend, he made his way down as well.  
“I guess we should go too, unless we have to take turns staring at each other’s retreating backs?” Remus Lupin said when Sirius didn’t move.  
“Oh, wouldn’t you like to look at my back, Moony.” Sirius joked.  
To his disappointment, Remus didn’t laugh but gave him a cold look before making his way downstairs.  
“Don’t worry, Padfoot. It’ll just take some time.” Peter reassured him. With a sigh, Sirius followed his friends downstairs.

Later that morning the entire population of fifth-year students was labouring over their DADA exam papers.  
“Five more minutes!” Professor Flitwick piped.  
James looked up from the Snitch he'd been doodling to see Sirius giving him a grinning thumbs-up. He quickly grinned back and turned back to the snitch he’d been drawing. A few rows in front of him a girl with dark red hair was looking absentmindedly out the window, slowly twirling her quill.  
James smiled knowing that Lily'd probably finished her paper twenty minutes ago. What he wouldn’t give to know what she was daydreaming about.  
He looked down at the “L.E.” he’d traced over in his doodle. Could it be possible that she was thinking of him, the way he thought of her?  
He thought back on their exchange that morning. Surely he hadn’t imagined the way she’d smiled at him?  
“Quills down, please” Professor Flitwick broke into James’ reverie. He quickly scribbled out the L.E. on his paper. “Please remain seated while I collect your parchment! Accio!”  
Every exam paper zoomed into the Professor’s open arms at once, knocking him off his feet.  
James laughed, but quickly stifled his grin when he saw Lily Evans throw him a dark look over her shoulder. Well at least she noticed him, he thought smugly.  
James stood up, stuffing his papers and quill in his bag and waited for his friends to join him.  
“Did you like question ten, Moony?” Sirius asked as they made it out into the Entrance Hall. James looked at Remus worriedly. Though they were trying to act like everything was normal, he knew Remus hadn’t forgotten what had happened yet.  
“Loved it.” Said Remus briskly. “Give five signs that identify the werewolf. Excellent question.”  
“Do you think you managed to get all the signs?” James asked in a tone of concern.  
“Think I did.” Remus turned serious. He waited for the group of fourth years to pass them before continuing. “One: he’s sitting in my chair. Two: he’s wearing my clothes. Three: his name’s Remus Lupin.”  
Wormtail was the only one who didn’t join in the forced laughter.  
“I’ve got the snout shape, the pupils of the eyes and the tufted tail.” He said anxiously. “But I couldn’t think what else…”  
“How thick are you, Wormtail?” James tried to smother his guilt in an insult. If they hadn’t spent so much time fighting they could’ve instead helped Peter with his OWL’s. “You run around with a werewolf every month.”  
“Keep your voice down.” implored Remus.  
“Well I thought that paper was a piece of cake.” Sirius interjected. “I’ll be surprised if I don’t get “Outstanding” on it at least.”  
Classic Sirius Black: when uncomfortable, show off.  
“Me too.” agreed James. He pulled a struggling Snitch from his pocket.  
“Where’d you get that?”  
“Nicked it.” James said casually.  
They made their way to a large beech tree and threw themselves down on the grass.  
Remus pulled out a book and started reading. Sirius stared around with a withdrawn look on his face, as always hiding whatever he was feeling.  
James looked at the two of them, brooding over this new dynamic in their group. This was not how they were meant to be. The Marauders were meant to fit together effortlessly, they were best friends.  
With a frown, James returned to playing with the Snitch. Peter gasped admiringly when he caught it at the last possible second. At least some things could be counted on the stay the same.  
James looked over at the water’s edge, where Lily was sitting with her friends, their feet hanging in the water. He unconsciously ruffled up his hair.  
“Put that away will you.” Sirius sounded annoyed when Peter let out a high cheer. “Before Wormtail wets himself with excitement.”  
Peter turned pink and James grinned in satisfaction.  
“If it bothers you.” He gave Sirius a look that made it clear bothering him had been the whole point.  
“I’m bored.” Sirius said. “Wish it was full moon.”  
He secretly hoped that once they all got to run together in their Animagus forms the tension would subside naturally. He couldn’t bear the feeling of constantly walking on eggshells. It reminded him too much of home.  
“You might.” said Remus darkly from behind his book. Sirius realized how his remark must have sounded and hated himself a little more. Why couldn’t he do anything right?  
“We’ve still got Transfiguration, if you’re that bored you could test me. Here…” Remus held out his book.  
Sirius snorted: “I don’t need to look at that rubbish, I know it all.” but he still took the book from Remus.  
Meanwhile James had spotted Severus Snape sitting under a bush. The real reason there was this constant strain among his friends was just sitting there peacefully, as if nothing was wrong with the world. Well, he would change that, he thought angrily.  
“This’ll liven you up, Padfoot.” James said quietly. “Look who it is…”  
Sirius turned his head to look in the direction James was pointing. He became very still when he spotted Snape.  
“Excellent.” He said softly. “Snivellus. Let’s study for our Defence practice exam instead, Moony.” He handed the book back.  
At that moment, Snape got up and started walking back towards the castle.  
James and Sirius both stood up, Remus and Peter remained sitting. Remus pretended to be entranced by his Transfiguration book, but Peter looked excitedly from James to Sirius.  
Out of the four of them, he’d had perhaps the hardest time these last few weeks. He hadn’t dared to pick a side, out of fear their group would fall apart. If that were to happen, Peter knew he would lose the most. To see the person responsible for their strife about to be punished filled him with grim anticipation.  
“All right, Snivellus?”  
Snape turned around, dropping his bag on the ground, and he had his wand halfway up when James yelled: “Expelliarmus!”  
Snape’s wand flew into the air and fell in the grass behind him. Sirius barked with laughter.  
“Impedimenta!” He said, pointing his wand at Snape, who was knocked off his feet halfway through a dive towards his own fallen wand.  
Their scuffle was being noticed by the other students, some of whom were edging nearer.  
Snape lay panting on the ground, while James and Sirius advanced on him with their wands raised. James glanced over his shoulder at the girls by the water’s edge. He’d prefer to keep this from Lily’s notice.  
“How’d the exam go, Snivelly?” James taunted.  
“I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment.” said Sirius viciously. “There’ll be great grease marks all over it, they won’t be able to read a word.”  
Several of the bystanders laughed heartily. Peter sniggered.  
“You-wait,” Snape panted, struggling to get up. He looked at James with an expression of purest loathing. “you-wait!”  
“Wait for what?” said Sirius cooly. “What’re you going to do, Snivelly, wipe your nose on us?”  
Snape let out a stream of swear words and hexes, but his wand was too far away and nothing happened.  
“Wash out your mouth.” James said coldly. “Scourgify.”  
Pink soap bubbles started to stream from Snape’s mouth, making him gag and froth.  
“Leave him ALONE!”  
James’ heart sank as they turned around. So much for keeping it from Lily.  
“All right, Evans?” He said, trying for the same tone as their earlier banter.  
“Leave him alone.” She looked at him angrily. “What’s he done to you?”  
“Well.” He considered explaining, but there were too many interested eavesdroppers around. “It’s more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean…”  
He tried to lighten the mood with a joke, but though a lot of students laughed, Lily’s look of disapproval didn’t leave her face.  
“You think you’re funny, but you’re just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter.” Lily said coldly. “Leave him alone.”  
James had a lot of practice keeping his features bland when he’d had to get the boys out of detention over the years, but he felt his mouth twitch down at the corners.  
“I will if you go out with me, Evans.” He said quickly, trying to hide his discomfort. “Go on… Go out with me, and I’ll never lay a hand on old Snivelly again. What do you say?”  
He tried for a winning smile, but Lily’s scowl only deepened.  
“I wouldn’t go out with you if it was a choice between you and the Giant Squid.” She retorted.  
“Bad luck, Prongs.” said Sirius briskly, and turned back to Snape. The latter had managed to throw off the Impedimenta Curse and grab his wand back. “Oi!”  
But too late, Snape had directed his wand at James, there was a flash of light and a gash appeared on the side of James’ face, spattering his robes with blood.  
James whirled away from Lily to face Snape again, and with a flick of his wand Snape was hanging upside down. His robes fell over his head, revealing skinny, pallid legs and greying underpants.  
Lily fought a smile for a second and yelled: “Let him down!”  
“Certainly.” Said James, and jerked his wand upwards. Snape fell into a crumpled heap on the ground. Disentangling himself from his robes he got quickly to his feet, wand up, but Sirius said: “Petrificus Totalus!” and Snape keeled over again, rigid as a board.  
“LEAVE HIM ALONE!” Lily shouted. She took her own wand out and pointed it at the boys.  
James and Sirius eyed her warily.  
“Ah, Evans, don’t make me hex you.” said James earnestly.  
“Then take the curse of him!” She motioned with her wand.  
James sighed deeply. This was not at all going to plan. He turned to Snape and muttered the countercurse.  
“There you go.” He said, as Snape struggled to his feet. “You’re lucky Evans was here, Snivellus-”  
“I don’t need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!” Snape hissed.  
A hush fell over the students. Everyone knew that the beautiful Gryffindor girl and the sallow Slytherin were, however unlikely, friends. With bated breaths they waited to see her reaction.  
Lily blinked slowly.  
“Fine.” she said coolly. “I won’t bother in the future.” She looked at him hard, he looked stricken. “And I’d wash my pants if I were you, Snivellus.”  
Though James was glad for Lily to see Snape’s true colours, he didn't want it to be like this. Did this slimy git have to ruin everyone he came into contact with?  
“Apologise to Evans!” James roared at Snape, his wand pointed at him threateningly.  
“I don’t want _you_ to make him apologise!” Lily shouted, rounding on James. “You’re as bad as he is!”  
“What?” James felt as though the ground opened up beneath him. “I’d NEVER call you a - you-know-what!”  
“Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you’ve just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing everyone who annoys you just because you can… I’m surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me sick.”  
She turned on her heel and hurried away before the look on James’ face could make her feel guilty.  
He watched her go with mixed feelings. A small part of him felt elated, because she had been paying attention to him after all, but mostly he felt awful because she had apparently only seen the worst of him.  
“Evans!” James shouted after her. “Hey, Evans!”  
He didn’t know what he could say to make it better, but it didn’t matter because she didn’t look back.  
“What is it with her?” said James, trying and failing to look as though he didn't really care about the answer.  
“Reading between the lines, I’d say she thinks you’re a bit conceited, mate.” said Sirius gently.  
“Right.” said James, his previous fury returning. “Right-”  
With another flash of light, Snape was once again hanging upside down in the air.  
“Who wants to see me take off Snivelly’s pants?”

_Monday, 28 June 1976_

Two days after their Transfiguration exam, Lily sat alone in an armchair by the fire. There was a lot of excited chatter since exams were over and there was no longer a need for hushed whispers, but she didn’t seem to hear.  
“Snape’s lurking outside, I think he wants to talk to you.” Marlene McKinnon interrupted Lily’s brooding.  
“I’m still not interested.” She replied. Marlene was the third person this evening to tell her Snape was out there.  
“I'm glad to hear it. Good for you, Lily.” Marlene patted her on the shoulder. Out of all of Lily’s close friends, she had been the most vehemently anti-Snape. “I’m off to bed, see you upstairs yeah?”  
Lily muttered something noncommittally and went back to staring in the fire.  
“I’m sorry to disturb you, but there’s someone waiting…” A first-year, Lily believed she was called Beth, started timidly.  
“I know, don’t worry about it.” Lily smiled. It felt like a stretch after three days of uninterrupted scowling.  
The girl nodded and walked away, obviously relieved at having completed her task.  
Internally, Lily was fuming. How dare he bother her House like that!  
Still, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of going out there. She wasn’t a toy that he could discard and pick up whenever he felt like it.  
With a sigh, she got up and made her way to the girls' dormitory. She saw the Marauders’ door was open and the boys weren’t there. Contemplating how they would react seeing their arch enemy waiting outside the common room, Lily hesitated. Though part of her felt Snape deserved whatever he got, she also didn’t want Gryffindor to lose any more points this close to the end of the school year.  
Deciding it wasn’t really her problem, she continued upstairs.  
Lily was about to get into bed when Mary McDonald came into their room, walking purposefully towards her.  
“Snape’s outside. Says he’ll sleep there unless you come out.” Mary looked alarmed.  
“For Pete’s sake, can’t he just take a hint!” Lily groaned. She grabbed her dressing gown angrily and stormed off.  
“Ah, Lily. Snape’s asking for you outside…” Peter Pettigrew started when she passed him on the stairs.  
“I KNOW!” Seeing Peter’s crestfallen expression she immediately felt bad for taking it out on him. “I’m sorry, Peter. I’m on my way to go talk to him.”  
When she made her way out of the portrait hole, Snape’s face lit up and he started towards her eagerly.  
“I’m sorry.” He started.  
“I’m not interested.” Lily was surprised at how true the words were.  
“I’m sorry.” He repeated, less certain this time. He had obviously expected she would forgive him immediately if only he gave her a perfunctory apology.  
“Save your breath. I only came out because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here.”  
“I was. I would have done. I never meant to call you a Mudblood, it just-”  
“Slipped out?” She couldn’t believe _this_ was the excuse he was making. “It’s too late. I’ve made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends.”  
She paused to see if he would try to contradict her, but he just looked away.  
“You see, you don’t even deny it! You don’t even deny that’s what you’re all aiming to be! You can’t wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?”  
Snape opened his mouth, but closed it again without speaking. When he failed to refute her accusation she felt the last strand of their friendship snap.  
“I can’t pretend anymore. You’ve chosen your way, I’ve chosen mine.”  
“No, listen, I didn’t mean…” He tried.  
“To call me a Mudblood?” Lily asked coldly. “But you call every one of my birth a Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?”  
He struggled for words, but they both knew there was nothing left to say. Lily turned away and climbed back through the portrait hole. She felt lighter than she had done for days.


	2. Finals

The last week of June was a rather uncomfortable one for the Gryffindor fifth years. Lily held on to her anger and refused to acknowledge James Potter however hard he tried. The more observant students also noticed that though the Marauders went about their business as usual, all their interactions were marred by a previously absent strain.  
The rest of the year tiptoed around the five of them, not willing to upset the fragile balance. All in all, the majority of them was quite happy to board the train and get away from the petty drama for the summer.  
Lily was making her way onto platform 9 ¾ when she heard a voice behind her shout:  
“Oi, Evans. Hold up!”  
She turned around to see Sirius Black making his way towards her through the crowds.  
“I just wanted to say…I’m sorry.” He suddenly looked uncomfortable but ploughed through. “I know I’ve been telling you Snape was bad news for years, and I can’t say that I’m not glad you’ve come to your senses.”  
She looked disapproving and he held his hands up in apology.  
“But I also know you guys were friends. And to hear something like that from a friend sucks. I didn’t want that for you.”  
“Okay.” Lily felt oddly touched. She’d always thought that Black felt himself above the mundane feelings of others. “Thanks, Sirius.”  
“Woah, are you _seriously_ calling me Sirius?” He barked, his eyes twinkling.  
“Oh, shut up, Black!” But she smiled at him nonetheless. “See you next year, yeah?”  
“Sure thing, new best friend.” He smiled as she walked away. Maybe Prongs was right about Evans. She could be alright if she wanted to. Thinking of Prongs his eyes searched the crowds for Mr and Mrs Potter.  
He spotted them a little way down the platform, showering their son with hugs and kisses. He felt a stab of envy looking at the three of them. He couldn’t remember his own mother ever having held him like that.  
Shrugging off those thoughts he made his way towards them with a smile.  
“Sirius, my boy!” Mr Potter spotted him first and pulled him into a one-armed hug. “How are you? I swear you’ve grown another couple inches since Christmas!” He held him at arm’s length with a wide grin.  
“It’s good to see you love!” Mrs Potter kissed him on both cheeks. “Will you be coming home with us today?”  
Sirius thought he detected a hopeful note in her voice, but he didn’t dare to let himself believe it.  
“I’m afraid my mother has requested me to come straight home this year.” He answered with real regret.  
“Well, maybe she’ll let you visit sometime later?” Mr Potter said. “You know you’re welcome whenever you like.”  
Sirius snuck a glance at James to see whether he agreed. His friend was looking wistfully at a retreating shock of red hair and didn’t notice.  
“And you can stay as long as you like.” Mrs Potter added cheerfully.   
Mr and Mrs Potter hugged him goodbye, James clapped him on the shoulder - “See you, Padfoot. Don’t stay away too long!”- and the three of them left.

Lily made her way out of King’s Cross station, looking out for a familiar blue car. She spotted it across the street and waited for the light to go green.  
She opened up the car door excitedly, expecting to see one of her parents, but her face fell when she saw her sister sitting behind the wheel.  
“Tuney?”   
“Dad had to work late, so he asked me to pick you up.” Petunia explained.  
Lily deposited her heavy trunk on the back seat of the car and took place next to her sister.  
“I didn’t know you got your driver’s permit?”  
“How would you, it’s not like you know anything else about my life.”  
Lily sighed. It was going to be a long drive home.  
“Is that friend of yours coming? The gloomy one, Severin?” asked Petunia, purposefully using a wrong name. “He’d better hurry up, I don’t have all day.”  
“No, he’ll get his own ride home.” Lily said, not looking at her sister.  
Petunia huffed. “Lovers’ quarrel?” She started the car and signalled.  
“He wasn’t my lover.” Lily answered, appalled.  
“Not sure _he_ knew that..” Petunia moved the car into traffic and started driving.  
“You’re driving really well.” said Lily quickly.  
Petunia smiled, on to the fact that her sister was trying to change the subject.  
“Thanks. Dad has been teaching me. He tried to teach mum as well, but she says she can’t remember which foot is supposed to go where and she gets all flustered.”  
Lily laughed. “Yeah, that does sound like mum.”  
“Don’t suppose you’ll need to learn how to drive a car. I’ll bet your lot have better ways to get about.”  
It was always hard to find a balance with Petunia. If Lily refused to tell her about her world, Petunia would accuse her of secrecy, but if she said too much her sister would become jealous.  
“Well, there’s broomsticks, though they’re uncomfortable as hell, especially when it’s raining. I much prefer a car then.” Lily tried. “Though once I turn seventeen, I’ll be able to get my Licence to Apparate. I’m really looking forward to that, to get from one place to the other in the blink of an eye!”  
“Sounds great!” Petunia said insincerely. Lily’s excited smile slid down her face, and she turned away from her sister to look out the car window.   
They drove the rest of the way in silence.

Peter Pettigrew struggled to carry his heavy trunk through the tight crowds on the platform. He piped out excuse me’s and sorry’s left and right, but no one seemed to hear them, or maybe they just ignored him. He sighed inwardly. If he had been walking with James or Sirius things would be different.  
He finally made his way to his mother; who was standing in a corner, hunched over as though to make sure she wasn’t taking up too much space in the world. Her face lit up when she saw him.  
“Peanut!” She hugged him tightly. He quickly glanced around to see if anyone had heard his childhood nickname, but he should have known no one would be paying attention to them.  
“Hullo, mum.” He hugged her back. He noticed she had gotten thinner. Cleaning for the Ministry didn’t exactly pay well, especially in times of political unrest.  
She grabbed his hand and they made their way out onto the street. Since his mother had never mastered Apparition, they took the Knight Bus whenever they needed to travel long-distance. The driver greeted them like old friends, sliding back one silver Sickle with a wink at his mum.   
“Don’t worry about it, Greta. You’ll have enough things on your plate when this one needs new books and stuff.” He nodded kindly at Peter. Though he knew Ernie meant well, he resented that they needed the charity.  
His mother thanked the man profusely and ushered Peter to the back of the bus.

Remus Lupin was the last student left on the Hogwarts Express. He’d said goodbye to his friends as they exited the train, and was now watching them from inside the carriage.  
James, as always, was picked up by both his parents. They were delighted to see him, taking turns to hug and kiss him.   
He saw Sirius talking to Lily Evans. She smiled at him, and Remus felt a stab of jealousy. They said goodbye and Sirius moved over to the Potters. They had always seen him as their second son and greeted him in kind.  
Remus let his eyes glide over the crowds and saw Peter being hugged by his mother. She was a small woman, with hunched shoulders, as though constantly expecting to be rebuffed.  
They made their way out, nodding at everyone they passed, though ignored by most.  
Remus sighed and got up. He was struggling with his trunk when a familiar voice said:  
“Let me help you with that.” His father took over the trunk and lifted it out of the train with ease. Remus looked around.  
“Where’s mum?”  
Mr Lupin looked uncomfortable. He cleared his throat and said: “With everything that’s been going on, your mother and I thought it was safest if she stays out of sight.”  
When he saw his son’s face he quickly amended: “Just for a little while, you know, until things settle down.”  
“What if they don’t, though?” Remus asked. “You can’t lock her up forever.”  
“I didn’t lock her up!” Mr Lupin looked stricken. “She agreed that it’s not the best time to be a Muggle in our world right now.”  
“I’m sorry, dad. I know you want what’s best for her. It just seems unfair, that’s all.”  
They started walking away, Remus contemplating all the ways in which these “Death Eaters” were ruining his life. At school they’d messed up his relationship with Sirius, and now at home they had made a fugitive of his mother.  
They made their way into an abandoned side street and with a sigh Remus put his hand on his father’s arm. With a faint pop they disappeared out of sight.


	3. The Colour of Betrayal

_Wednesday, 30 June 1976_

Sirius Black made his way across platform 9 ¾ with a sinking feeling in his stomach. Every summer it became harder to return to the hateful remarks and strict rules of his mother, but this year especially since he had left things unresolved with the other Marauders.  
He joined his brother Regulus, who was waiting for him by the gate. They wordlessly walked through, making their way outside.  
They were greeted by Kreacher, the family house-elf, who was sent to accompany them home. According to his mother it was for their safety, but Sirius knew it was to stop him making any detours or sneak off.  
“Master Regulus, welcome back, sir.” The house-elf bowed deeply in front of his brother. For Sirius he reserved a particular dirty look and a perfunctory nod. He grabbed their trunks with the spindly fingers of one grubby hand and offered them the other.  
With a snap they Apparated outside Grimmauld Place. Sirius felt his mood darken even further at the sight of the place he hated most in all the world, and yet was still forced to call home.  
Steeling himself as he walked in, he made straight for his bedroom on the third floor. Triple-locking the door, he breathed a sigh of relief. At least for the moment he had managed to escape the notice of his dear old mother. For now, he was safe.  
With satisfaction he noted that they had been unable to remove the Muggle posters he’d attached on every available surface. The modified Sticking Charm he’d used had been an invention of Remus.  
Thinking of Moony made him feel guilty again. With a groan he threw himself onto the ornate four-poster bed, staring up at the mouldy curtains. Kreacher delighted in giving his room the least amount of care he could get away with.  
With a sigh he wished himself back in his Hogwarts dorm room, the sound of his friends’ snoring a welcome background noise that allowed him to sleep peacefully.  
Not that he had done much sleeping the last few weeks, the guilt that had been eating him made sure of that. Memories of the night he had ruined everything intruded his mind constantly.

_“Snivellus, what are you doing here, lurking around in the dark?”_  
_He had come back from the library, after a study session with Moony, when he ran into Snape._  
_“I’m not lurking, Black. Move on.”_  
_“Sirius looked back in the direction Snape had been peering. He could make out Remus’ form bent over his stack of parchment._  
_“Were you spying on us, Snivellus?” He had asked indignantly._  
_“Don’t flatter yourself, it’s not about you. But I know there’s something off about your…” He paused before sneering: “...friend, and I am going to expose what it is.”_  
_Annoyance had flooded Sirius, both at the derisive way Snape had said the word “friend” and the veiled threat he’d made to Remus._  
_“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Snivellus. You don’t have a clue. So why don’t you keep your greasy nose out of things that don’t concern you?”_  
_He would have walked away then if Snape hadn’t continued._  
_“Oh but it does concern me, doesn’t it. Your brother being my friend, I must prevent you from smearing the family name by associating with unsavoury parties such a that Lupin. I’m sure your mother would agree.” He added the last bit with a splitting grin._  
_“Leave my family out of this, Snape.” Sirius turned back and drew his wand._  
_“What do you think your mother would say, Sirius, if she knew you snuck out at night with that filthy Half-Blood?”_  
_“Shut up!” He shouted, pointing his wand at Snape’s face. The other boy laughed scornfully._  
_“What exactly is it you two get up to at night? I’m sure I don’t even want to know, though your mother might. So she can discipline it out of you.”_  
_Sirius’ hand trembled around his wand as he remembered some of the “disciplines” his mother had dealt him. He couldn’t believe Regulus would tell Snape about that._  
_“Do you suppose your brother is of the same disposition? Maybe I should write her a letter, it would be easier if she could deal with both of you at the same time.” Snape was clearly overjoyed that his taunts were hitting the mark. He didn’t seem to care that a wand was pointing in his face, knowing full well that Sirius couldn’t really harm him on school grounds._  
_A cold rage had flooded Sirius, blotting out all sense of reason, and leaving only a burning desire to wipe that smug smile off of Snape’s face._  
_“Some friend you are.” He lowered his wand. “If you really want to know where we go, come to the Whomping Willow at midnight.”_  
_He had explained how to get into the tunnel and had left Snape, the grim satisfaction that the greasy git would get what was coming for him a warm flame in his chest._

Of course, once his anger had worn off and reason had returned, he realized what a grave mistake he had made, not only endangering Snape but also Remus.  
He had told James what he’d done in a slight panic. He would never forget his best friend’s face as he said: “No, you stay here. You’ve done enough damage today.”, before storming off through the portrait hole.  
At the time he didn’t think things could get worse, but that was until he had to face Remus.  
“How could you do this to me, Sirius?” He hadn’t sounded angry or accusing, but disappointed and deeply sad. It had broken Sirius’ heart in so many more ways than outright anger could have done.  
He hadn’t been able to defend himself, all the reasons he’d had suddenly seemed feeble and ridiculous. The truth was he had thought only of revenge, without for a second considering the consequences to his friend.  
His friends had said they forgave him, but the stain of what he’d done still polluted their every interaction. He wasn’t sure whether it would ever go away.  
A quiet knock on his door broke through his brooding thoughts.  
“Sirius?” Regulus’ voice sounded muffled through the heavy wooden door. “Mother has asked for you in the drawing-room.”  
He considered pretending to be asleep for a moment, but he knew he’d have to go downstairs at some point. Best to get it over with quickly.  
With a sigh, he heaved himself off the bed and went out into the hallway.  
He walked past his brother without sparing him a glance. Regulus grabbed his wrist.  
“Don’t provoke her, Sirius.” He looked earnest.  
“I won’t if _she_ doesn’t provoke me first.” He joked, keeping up his unconcerned facade. “Besides, you can’t tell me what to do, Reggie.”  
He gave his brother a wink and made his way downstairs, carefully schooling his features into a haughty blank stare.  
He paused in front of the richly decorated door before going in.  
His mother was sitting in the armchair facing the door, cutting an imposing figure in the light of the fire. Why she would light a fire in the middle of a heatwave, Sirius would never know.  
She gestured wordlessly for him to take place on the sofa opposite the fire. Her eyes followed him coldly as he made his way across the room.  
He sat down and looked at her, the silence between them deepening.  
“Hello, mother.” He said when he could no longer stand the wait.  
“I’m glad to see you haven’t forgotten _all_ your manners while you were away at that school.” She regarded him coldly.  
“Regulus said you wished to see me?”  
“How was school? How are your... friends?”  
Sirius felt suddenly on edge. In the five years he’d been away at Hogwarts, his mother had never once shown an interest in anything other than his exam results.  
“Good, thank you, mother.” He answered carefully.  
“Good?” She raised her eyebrows artfully. “No, I don’t think so.”  
He felt his stomach drop. What had she heard? Which lie would he have to tell?  
“I’m afraid I’m not following, mother?” He said innocently, carefully keeping the blank look on his face.  
“Your brother tells me you were fighting in the school grounds just this week.”  
Sirius kept quiet. When had his mother ever opposed violence?  
“Not only were you fighting against a member of the noble house of Slytherin…” She managed to convey all her disappointment and disgust at him having defied her by being sorted into any other house than her own. “... but you were fighting on the side of a Mudblood, no less! What do you have to say to this, Sirius Black?”  
Her eyes glittered dangerously as she awaited his answer.  
“Her name is Evans. Don’t call her a Mudblood.” He said coldly.  
“You think you can tell me what to do, in my own home, Sirius?” She laughed without mirth. “Dear boy, you do amuse me. You should know better than to defend a filthy Mudblood. They are abominations, and whether you like it or not, soon the whole world will agree with me.”  
Sirius stood up angrily.  
“The whole world, maybe, but _I_ will _never_ agree with you. If you are quite done insulting me, I will take my leave now, mother.”  
“Not so fast.” She pointed her wand and the door sealed itself shut. “Another thing has been brought to my attention. Not only is it said you deal with Mudbloods, but that you fraternize with werewolves to boot!”  
He could see that she had finally come to the point she had really meant to discuss. His face fell slightly as terror for Remus flooded him. What would she do with this knowledge? His only option was to deny it outright.  
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” It would have sounded convincing if his voice hadn’t broken on the last word.  
His mother smiled pityingly. “Don’t lie to me, Sirius, unless you can learn to do it convincingly. I first heard the rumour from old Mulciber - his son is a friend of your brother’s by the way, at least one of my sons turned out properly - and then I contacted uncle Malfoy on the school board, who confirmed it to me. It is abominable that such a creature was ever allowed in school, but that you should willingly interact with him? You have disgraced us all!”  
She looked at him with thinly veiled hatred.  
He didn’t make an answer, denial was useless now.  
“From now on, you will only acquaint yourself with people of Pureblood status, or people I have previously approved. You will cut all ties with this werewolf. And under no circumstances will you ever align yourself again with Mudbloods and other riffraff.”  
She paused to see if he would argue. “I will know if you disobey me, Sirius, trust me.”  
He didn’t doubt the truth of her words. He felt the same cold rage settle in that had come over him that night with Snape.  
“Is that understood, Sirius?” She urged angrily when he still didn’t reply.  
“No.” He looked at her without blinking.  
“No?” She laughed maniacally. “How quickly you forget, dear boy. If you do not obey me, I will _make_ you.”  
“You can try.” Sirius held his ground, knowing what would come next.  
“Imperio!”  
The familiar weightlessness settled over him, the absence of thought or will.  
_Say you will obey me._  
He stood still, his eyes boring into his mother’s.  
_Say it!_  
“I’m afraid you’ve used this trick one too many times, mother.” He said bitterly, struggling to throw off the last remnants of the curse. “I’m out.”  
He turned to walk away when he heard his mother say: “I have other tricks up my sleeve, son. Crucio!” She said it softly, almost like an endearment.  
The curse hit him square in the back and he fell face forward on the ground.  
Sirius had suffered a great deal of mental and physical pain in this room, but it all seemed insignificant child’s play compared to the excruciating agony he was feeling now.  
He started screaming, his body twisting and thrashing in an attempt to get away from the pain. He hit his head against the floor and the side table repeatedly until he tasted blood in his mouth. His body’s uncontrolled movements had brought him close to the fire, he tried to get away, but he couldn’t control himself. Just when he thought he would prefer the flames to this, his mother withdrew her wand.  
“Enough. Get up, Sirius.”  
He stood on shaking limbs, the acute pain gone, but his body still aching.  
“Say you will obey me.”  
“N-No.” He said through the blood running into his mouth.  
His mother’s look darkened.  
“Don’t make me do that again, Sirius.” She threatened. “Say you will obey me!”  
“No!” His voice sounded stronger this time. His hand inched towards his wand.  
“So be it. Cruc-”  
“Expelliarmus!” His hand shook badly, but his Disarming Spell worked. His mother’s wand flew out of her hand and into the fire.  
“No! Look what you've done!” She screamed. “You’ll pay for this!”  
She advanced on him threateningly, but Sirius raised his wand again.  
“Don’t take another step, or I will do worse than Disarm you.”  
She regarded him with cold amusement.  
“Finally, some spine. Though you must know there is no way out of this, right Sirius? You may have temporarily disarmed me, but by tomorrow I will have another wand, and I _will_ make you pay.”  
“I’m leaving. You can’t stop me.”  
“And where will you go?” She laughed again. “You will not get a single Knut from your father and me. Do you really think anyone will take you in for free?”  
He didn’t answer and turned to the door.  
“I swear, if you walk out that door, you will never set another foot in this house, Sirius Black!”  
“Gladly.” He kept walking.  
“You are no son of mine.” She hissed, a last attempt to bring him back.  
Sirius closed his eyes for a second and opened the door. In the hallway he ran into Regulus’ stricken form.  
“Sirius…” He started forward.  
“Some brother you are, Reg.” Sirius said painfully through his battered face.  
“I didn’t know she would do this!” He had tears in his eyes.  
“Don’t bother. I’m leaving.” Sirius limped past him towards the stairs.  
“Leaving? When are you coming back?”  
“I’m not coming back, Reggie. Do you _want_ our mother to kill me?”  
“Don’t say that Sirius. This is your home, we are your family. You can’t just leave us.” His brother sounded desperate.  
“This has never been a home, Regulus, let alone a family.” Sirius rested his head against his bedroom door. Turning around he said: “You could come with me, if you like. You don’t have to stay here. Not every family is like this. We could go somewhere where they’ll take care of us. Love us, even.”  
“We’re Blacks. No one will ever let us forget it.”  
“That’s not true. Look at aunt Andromeda, she left and she’s doing alright. We can do this, Reg, please.” He begged.  
Regulus looked down at his feet, but when he looked up at his older brother he was determined.  
“I can’t go, Sirius. Mother needs me. I’m going to stay.”  
“Damn it Reg!” Sirius punched the wall, then pulled his brother into a quick hug, trying to convey the things he couldn’t put into words.  
He then made his way in to grab his belongings. Most things he wanted to take were still in his unpacked trunk, but he grabbed a framed picture of him and the other Marauders from when they were in third year and stuffed it in his robe pockets.  
After a last glance around his room, he left, not seeing anyone on his way out.  
It wasn’t until he’d wandered a few streets away from Grimmauld Place that the full impact of what he had done hit him. Though his house had never been a happy home, it had been the only home he’d ever known. His mother’s last words rang through his head. What if she was right and no one would want to take him in? He had a little money, but that wouldn’t even last him through the summer. How was he going to afford books, new school robes, _food_?  
_You can stay as long as you like._ He remembered Mrs Potter’s words earlier that day. He supposed there really was only one place for him to go.  
With a heavy heart and aching limbs, he called the Knight Bus.


	4. Family Don’t End With Blood

_Wednesday, 30 June 1976_

James Potter was sitting around the kitchen table with his parents. While he stuffed his face with homemade shortbread, he regaled the events of the last month.  
His parents shook their heads sadly when they heard about Sirius and Remus falling out, and smiled knowingly at each other every time their son mentioned the girl named Lily.  
“And then she said I was just as bad as Snivellus Snape! Can you believe it?” He asked bitterly. “He called her a... And she thinks _I’m_ the bad guy!”  
“I know, dear.” said his mother soothingly. “But maybe try and see things from her perspective for a moment? She doesn’t know what happened with you boys, does she? So as far as she can tell, you just attacked someone without provocation.”  
“It’s not like he didn’t defend himself.” grumbled James, pointing to the gash on his cheekbone that hadn’t fully mended yet.  
“Did you expect him to just lie down and let him walk all over you, son?” Mr Potter interceded. “Of course not, you wanted to rile him and he rose to the challenge.”  
James grudgingly acceded the point. His father was about to launch into one of his long-winding moralistic anecdotes when they were startled by the ring of the doorbell.  
Mr and Mrs Potter looked at each other worriedly.  
“I’ll go and check who it is, you two stay here.” Mr Potter got out his wand and went out into the hallway.  
They heard the door open and Mr Potter exclaimed: “Dear God!”. James and his mother shared a startled look before they rushed to see what was going on.  
A very dishevelled-looking Sirius Black was standing in their doorway, shaking like a leaf.  
When Mr Potter urged him into the light of the hallway, the three Potters drew in a sharp breath.  
“Padfoot, what happened?” James cried out, moving closer to inspect his friend's face. His lip was split and swollen, while a large bruise was forming over his left eyebrow. His clothes were rumpled and sooty, a large tear running down the side of his left sleeve.  
“I didn’t know where else to go...I…” He looked at James pleadingly.  
Mrs Potter, recovered from her initial shock moved past James and put her arm around Sirius’ trembling form. She gently led him into the kitchen, where she started to clean him up.  
James grabbed Sirius’ abandoned trunk and made to follow them, but his father put a hand on his chest.  
“Did you know it was like this?” He asked quietly.  
“Know what was like this?” James responded, uncomprehendingly.  
“Did you know his parents used curses on him?” Mr Potter clarified.  
“What? No!” James looked sick. “Do you really think that’s what happened?”  
“We’ll see.” With a heavy sigh, Mr Potter put his hand around his son’s shoulder and they made their way into the brightly lit kitchen.  
Mrs Potter had a talent for healing spells, but even so there was still an expanse of fading bruises on Sirius’ chest and back. He quickly shrugged on the shirt Mrs Potter handed him, conscious of James’ shocked stare.  
Mrs Potter put a large cup of tea and an extra helping of shortbread in front of Sirius.  
Then they all sat down and looked at him, with a mixture of pity and expectation.  
“Do you think you could tell us what happened, Sirius?” Mr Potter started.  
Sirius’ hand that had been reaching for his tea started shaking. He balled it in a fist, but he couldn’t stop his face from contorting.  
“Oh love, it’s alright.” Euphemia got up and put her arms around him. “Shh, you’re safe now. Everything will be alright.”  
He turned his face into her shoulder, and while she held him he haltingly told them what had happened that night.  
Euphemia and Fleamont, whose son was the light of their life, couldn’t imagine anyone treating their child like this. They shared a look over the boys’ heads that said: _Anger and vengeance will come later. Right now we need to take care of this child._  
“Was this the first time something like that happened?” Mr Potter asked.  
The look on Sirius’ face told him everything he needed to know.  
“Well it was certainly the last time.” Mrs Potter said decidedly. “You are never going back there, Sirius, do you hear me, never. We will take care of you, for as long as you need it.”  
“I don’t have any money.” Sirius confessed in a small voice. “I can never repay you.”  
“Repay us?” Mr Potter cried out indignantly. “D’you think we ask James to pay us for his lodgings?”  
“No, but he is your son...”  
“Exactly.” said Mrs Potter. She kissed the top of Sirius’ head. “So that is decided then.”  
She wouldn’t hear any more contradictions as she drew him along upstairs.

That night James lay awake, thinking about what Sirius had told them. He felt like a terrible friend. He had always cast himself as his friends’ protector, but he had failed to realise that the one friend who’d actually needed his protection was the one he’d never thought to give it to. Sirius had always seemed so self-assured, so stoic, almost haughty. The thought that someone could hurt his invulnerable friend had seemed laughable.  
Until he’d seen Sirius’ haunted look tonight and heard the secret he had kept from him for five years. A lot of things made sense now: Sirius’ need for independence, his reluctance to rely on others. The way he sometimes pushed even his friends away. He hadn’t wanted them to come too close out of fear they would betray him.  
James sat up, fisting his hair. How had he not seen?  
A small knock on the door broke into his self-accusing contemplations.  
“Prongs?” A pause. “Are you awake?”  
James jumped out of bed and almost tripped over his own feet in his haste to open the door.  
Sirius was wearing one of his new PJs, with a design of moving Quidditch balls.  
“I couldn’t sleep.” He whispered. “Can I stay with you?”  
James wordlessly stepped aside to let him in and closed the door again. They stood around awkwardly for a moment and then blurted out: “I’m sorry” at the same time.  
“Wait what?”  
“What are _you_ sorry for?”  
“Let’s go one at a time, alright?” James suggested with a small smile. Sirius nodded warily.  
“I’m so sorry.” James began. “I had no idea what things were like at your house, or I would have never let you go back there. I should have been there for you, Padfoot.”  
He paused to find the right words. “I know things haven’t been right these last few weeks, but you’re my brother, Sirius. I never want you to think that you can’t count on me, even when we’re fighting.”  
Sirius grabbed him in a tight hug, trying his best not to cry. An immense relief flooded him.  
“I’ve done everything wrong, Prongs. What happened with Remus, showing up here unannounced. I should never have let Snape get to me, I should have protected Remus. And I shouldn’t have come here like that, but I didn’t know where else to go…”  
James tightened his arms around Sirius, and the two boys held onto each other like liferafts, silently resolving never to let the other one down again.


	5. The Sign of the Wolf

_Sunday, 11 June 1976_

Remus Lupin looked down at his watch. A quarter past eleven at night.  
The advantage of summer was that the sun stayed up longer, and therefore his transformation could be postponed a little. He could already feel the familiar creeping ache move up his limbs. He balled his hands into fists, trying to remain in control for another minute.  
The _disadvantage_ of summer was that his friends were not around to help him through. When Sirius had suggested the three of them become Animagi so that his friends could accompany him during the full moon, Remus had called him an idiot. But since they’d actually managed it earlier this year, the nights of pain and terror had become almost adventures, something to look forward to. Tonight would be the first time in 9 months he would be alone with the pain again.  
Wishing his friends were here more than anything he let his head fall back in a silent scream, the change ripping through his body once again.

James and Sirius were sat in the Potters’ living room. James’ parents had already turned in for the night, so they were alone.  
“There has to be a way.” Sirius repeated for the third time in five minutes.  
Both of the boys were staring out the window at the large round shape of the moon that lit up the garden, thinking of what their friend must be going through right now.  
“We’ve been over it, Padfoot.” said James miserably. “We can’t get there without using magic, and even if we did we would still not get in without magic. So unless you can speed up time and make us both seventeen, there’s nothing we can do.”  
“I just hate the idea of him being alone.” Sirius muttered, boring his nails into the palms of his hands. “You know how much he hates being alone.”  
James remembered the first time they’d spent a full moon with Remus. After two years of trying and failing, they had all three managed to successfully transform themselves into animals. They had been excited to finally try out their plan, though Remus had been apprehensive.  
“What if I hurt one of you? What if something goes wrong?” He had fretted. “I won’t know that you’re my friends, you know. I don’t even know myself while I’m changed.”  
But they had laughed his concerns away, trying to remove Remus’ doubts. In truth James, too, had been a little anxious, though he would never have admitted it. They had spent so long on this, now was not the time to be a coward.  
So when Mme Pomfrey had picked Remus up that night they had said cheerful goodbyes, promising to see him tomorrow before class. They had pretended to go to bed until the last of the Gryffindor students had left the common room, then snuck out using James’ Invisibility Cloak. They had gotten too big for it to cover all three, so Peter changed and snuggled in Sirius’ pocket while they made their way outside. They had to duck behind a statue on the second floor to avoid walking straight into Filch, and they had almost made it out when Mrs Norris hissed at them. Sirius had barked back, and the cat had made a hasty retreat, her glowing yellow eyes throwing them a reproachful look.  
With a sigh of relief they had made it out into the grounds, and stuffing the Cloak under a nearby bush, James and Sirius had changed as well. They had only done it a handful of times, and the first moments of walking around on four legs were still a bit disorienting.  
Anyone looking out their window at that moment would have thought they were seeing a very drunk stag, trying unsuccesfully to fistbump a large black hound.  
After running a few times around the edge of the Forbidden Forest, they had gotten their footing and signaled to Wormtail that he should open the passage.  
They had entered the Shrieking Shack to find a wild and angry werewolf clawing at his own body in frustration. There was some furniture that was recognisable as such, but mostly a lot of broken wood and ripped curtains littered the floor.  
The werewolf growled viciously at the intruders, warning them to stay away. The stag and hound had circled him carefully, slowly driving him towards the tunnel. The stag went in first, taunting the wolf to follow him, while the black dog bit at its heels to make it go faster. At first the wolf seemed unsure, but it didn’t have much of a choice so it ran head down into the dark tunnel. Emerging it sniffed the air for a trace of the stag. With a rallying howl it pursued the scent into the Forbidden Forest, the dog close on its heels. That night they discovered depths of the forest no living being had been before, and the werewolf didn’t once have to turn on itself to alleviate its rage.  
Though the next day, Remus was still tired and pale, no new scars marred his body, and the Marauders knew that it was worth it.  
After that, Remus never had to spend another full moon alone, and he came to rely on the other animals. Now when they entered the Shrieking Shack, he was stalking around impatiently, waiting for his friends to come get him.  
It sometimes took them longer, if they had to take detours, or wait in empty classrooms for teachers or Filch to pass. If only they had a way to predict where everyone was going to be, then they could plot their route out in advance.  
A light bulb went on inside James brain.  
“We can’t help Moony right now.” he said thoughtfully. “But I know something that we _can_ do…”  
And he explained his idea that would be their most advanced project to date.

_Monday, 12 June 1976_

Lyall Lupin sat dozing at his kitchen table, his cup of coffee untouched in his hand. He had spent the entire night recasting several Silencing and Unbreakable Charms to contain his teenage werewolf son, and he felt exhausted. On top of that it was Monday morning, so he’d have to go into the Ministry in less than an hour. With a tired groan he pushed himself up from his chair. Maybe a shower would wake him up. He took a sip of coffee and was about to go upstairs when he heard the doorbell ring. Quickly checking his wand was in his pocket he walked to the front door cautiously. They had spread the story that his wife Hope was away for the summer, visiting relatives in France, so he didn’t expect any trouble. But in these times one couldn’t be careful enough. He took out his wand to undo the Sealing Charms on the door, and opened it warily.  
On the doorstep were two lanky teenage boys. One with untidy hair and glasses, the other with luscious black curls and piercing blue eyes.  
With a relieved sigh Lyall opened the door further and dropped his wand.  
“What are you boys doing here at this hour? Shouldn’t you still be in bed, it’s 7 am!”  
“We came to see Remus, Mr Lupin.” James said brightly. They hadn’t slept a wink last night, but the excitement over his new idea sustained him.  
“Oh, well I’m really sorry boys. Erm, he’s just not feeling very well at the moment. Maybe it’s best if you come back next week alright?” Mr Lupin smiled politely and started to close the door.  
“Sir, wait!” Sirius Black put his hand against the door. “Remus will want to see us. Trust me.”  
He looked at Mr Lupin with his most persuasive look. With a frown he opened the door again.  
“Fine, but he’s very tired, so let him rest for another hour or so. You two can wait in the front room.”  
The boys walked in excitedly, bringing out a bunch of parchment that they started pouring over. Deciding that it would be better not to ask, Lyall went upstairs.  
After his shower, he woke up his wife with a kiss, and warned her about their early-morning visitors. With a laugh she got up. She quite liked the friends her son had chosen, always full of daft schemes, but ever so bright. She decided she would make them all pancakes.

When Remus came downstairs a few hours later, he was met with an uproar of excited voices and clinking cutlery. He saw the three Marauders assembled in his living room; James and Sirius debating furiously over a mountain of scribbled lines and drawings, Peter passing around snacks and quills. Meanwhile his mother was bringing out a seemingly endless supply of baked goods from their kitchen.  
“Oh hello dear, how are you feeling?” She smiled when she spotted him. “Why don’t you sit down and I’ll bring you out some breakfast.”  
“Finally, Moony. We were beginning to think you’d never make it out of bed!” James motioned him over to the sofa. With a tug on his arm, Remus was now awkwardly sandwiched between James and Sirius on the small two-seater sofa.  
“What the hell is going on guys?” asked Remus, clearly baffled.  
“Well, last night Sirius and I couldn’t sleep, and we got thinking.” James started.  
“Poor James nearly crashed his brain doing that, but then he did come up with something brilliant.” Sirius added excitedly. “You know how it sometimes takes us a long time to catch up with you on...” He threw a glance towards the kitchen. “.._that time of the month_, because we always keep running into Filch, or a teacher. Or we drop Wormtail down the Vanishing Stair.”  
“That wasn’t fun.”  
“So I was thinking: what if we made a map of the castle. But not just any map, one where every person in the castle shows up on the map, in exactly the place where they are at that time!” James explained triumphantly. “So Sirius and I’ve been up all night, and we think if we can cast a Location Charm that we somehow link up to a map, we could make it work.”  
“But wouldn’t you have to cast a charm on every single person separately for that to work?” Remus questioned. “And wouldn’t the map then become obsolete everytime someone new entered the castle?”  
“Well that’s where the really brilliant bit begins, see, the Location spell wouldn’t be on the people, but on the Map itself!” Sirius exclaimed, looking at Remus excitedly. Remus didn’t share the other boys’ conviction though.  
“That’s never going to work. You could map the castle and then put the Charm on it, but it still wouldn’t work for the people. Grundle’s fourth law clearly states that ‘a Charm needs a direct exchange of energy to take effect’, and that condition is not fulfilled.”  
“True, but remember that time we Replicated the Quidditch Pitch so I could follow the match from detention? What if we put a Replication Charm on the entire school, and linked that up with the Location Charm on the Map?” James suggested.  
Remus looked doubtful. “I suppose it’s worth a try, though it won’t be an easy feat.”  
“When has anything ever been easy, Moony?” Sirius nudged him with his shoulder, and Remus became suddenly very aware of just how close they were sitting. He quickly looked away from Sirius’ too blue eyes. “Besides, it’ll be fun to have a challenge! The Marauders reunited.”  
“We could call it the Marauder’s Map!” Peter piped up excitedly. He had been rather quiet up until now, leaving the theoretical discussions to the other boys.  
“The Marauders’ Map.” James thought about it for a second. “Yeah I like that. Good one, Wormy! I knew we kept you around for a reason.”  
They threw themselves back into drawing out diagrams and heated discussions about whether it was possible to Transfigure a Charm, all the while gorging themselves on cookies.  
It was almost nightfall when Mrs Lupin said: “Alright, that’s enough now! Let’s get you boys outside for a while. You’ve been cooped up here all day, a bit of fresh air will do you good.”  
She ushered them outside, heaving a sigh when the door closed. Though she loved them all dearly, it was easy to forget the racket four boys could make when you put them all together in one room.

“So you’re back at Prongs’ then?” Remus started. He and Sirius were sitting with their backs against a large willow tree, watching James and Peter play around with an old Quaffle.  
“I wouldn’t have thought your mother would agree to let you go that quickly.”  
“Yeah, she didn’t exactly agree to it.” said Sirius with a rueful smile. “I ran away. Or she kicked me out, depending on how you want to look at it.”  
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know Sirius.” Remus put his hand on Sirius’. “Are you alright?”  
Sirius smiled and squeezed Remus’ hand. This was why he loved Moony. He didn’t demand an explanation, or insisted to know what had happened. He only wanted to know that he was alright.  
“I will be.” He answered truthfully.  
They looked at their friends in silence. James had managed to lodge the Quaffle in a tree and was now trying to lift Peter up so he could grab it. Between James’ glasses being repeatedly knocked off, and Peter’s swaying arms always nearly missing the ball, it wasn’t going splendidly.  
“Moony, I..” Sirius started, his voice getting stuck in his throat. “I’ve been thinking a lot, these last few days. About the meaning of home, and family. And I realized that this is it -” He indicated the four of them. “James, and Peter, and you.” He looked at Remus intently. “You are my home. But I also know that I have wronged you terribly, and I haven’t properly apologised for it. Mostly because, I don’t have a good excuse. I got riled when Snape mentioned my family, but I should have protected you, I should never have let him get to me. And I know that I can’t take it back, but I can promise to do better. To be better. Because I couldn’t stand to lose my home.”  
Sirius looked at him earnestly, and Remus felt his heart break along the seam. It happened very rarely that Sirius Black showed his real emotions, having been taught since infancy to conceal any signs of perceived weakness. So when a moment like this happened, when all his pain and fear were showing clearly in his guileless blue eyes, it felt like staring into the heart of the sun.  
“I already forgave you, Sirius.” said Remus, unable to look away. “But I appreciate your honesty.”  
They looked at each other and the moment shifted from graveness into something new. Remus felt a mingle of trepidation and excitement, Sirius’ gaze shifted to his mouth and back up. They were still holding hands and Remus was acutely aware of his own sweaty palm against Sirius’ cool skin. He shifted his weight and was wacked over the head by a heavy Quaffle.  
“Sorry, Moony!” Peter yelled. He had managed to dislodge the ball by knocking it straight into Remus’ head.  
“Don’t worry about it, Wormtail.” Remus shouted back, rubbing his head painfully. He threw back the ball so hard that it knocked over his small friend.  
Sirius did not hold his hand again.


	6. Here Comes a Wave

_Tuesday, 17 August 1976_

The rest of the Marauders’ summer was spent alternating between their respective homes to work on their idea for a Marauder’s Map. Many a night ended with one of them storming out, declaring the other three “narrow-minded idiots”, only to come back after five minutes with “a new and brilliant break-through”.  
Though they were all eager to see the map work, the project had already succeeded by knitting their group back together. Remus could call Sirius a bitch, and have him retaliate with “Go howl at the moon, Moony!”, without any of them worrying it would cause a row.  
One day they had been sitting in James’ bedroom, Peter whacking Sirius over the head with a copy of Advanced Transfigurations while Remus shouted loudly about the third law of Lorian the Wise, and James had felt a great peace. These were his brothers, and nothing could break them apart.  
All too soon their Hogwarts letters arrived, announcing the end of their carefree summer. James and Sirius got only O’s and E’s on their OWL’s, Remus got A’s and E’s mostly, and even Peter managed to scrape an E in Charms. All in all the boys were quite pleased with themselves and had decided to celebrate at the Leaky Cauldron. Their school shopping bundled up precariously in a chair, they'd just taken their first sip of Butterbeer when they heard a commotion coming from Diagon Alley.  
The Leaky Cauldron was unusually quiet, and the few people that were there either hurried off quickly or huddled deeper into their robes, pretending not to hear the hubbub coming from the alley. The Marauders, Gryffindors at heart, abandoned their table to check out the trouble. Running outside they came upon a group of people facing off, wands at the ready. The two people facing them they recognised as Marlene and Samuel McKinnon, fellow Hogwarts Students.  
“Everything alright here?” Sirius nodded at them. The people who’d been facing them turned around. Sirius recognised two of them as his cousins Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black. They were accompanied by a small man with a tiny pointed beard he’d never seen.  
“This doesn’t concern you, cousin.” Lucius hissed. “Move along, and take your ragtag bunch with you.”  
“Who are you calling ragtag?” asked James, his hand moving towards his wand.  
“I think we’ll be the judge of what concerns us.” Remus added.  
“Besides, I was asking _them_ if everything was alright.” Sirius motioned to the McKinnons.  
They both still had their wands up, though their postures had relaxed slightly upon seeing the boys.  
“We just wanted to buy some school stuff when these three started harassing us.” said Marlene.  
“Harassing? We just wanted to introduce our new friend.” Lucius smiled falsely. “Everyone, meet Igor Karkaroff. He’s on an exchange for the Ministry of Magic of Romania, here to see how we deal with the threat of Muggle-borns.”  
“The threat of Muggle-borns?” James asked incredulously. “What the hell does that even mean?”  
“Studies have shown that year after year, the number of Pure-blooded wizards and witches declines in favor of those of impure descent.” Narcissa explained eagerly. “If we wish to preserve our Magical communities and traditions, we need to act now, or else risk to be overrun by Mudbloods.”  
“In my country, there is still a lot of support for the theories first proposed by Gellert Grindelwald, that people with Magical blood hold a natural superiority over those without it. If we wish to go into the new Golden Age of wizardkind, we need to restore the natural order!” the man named Karkaroff added. “I have travelled to Russia, Scandinavia and various parts of Yugoslavia, and our allies are many. If we can unite these like-minded people across Europe, we stand a chance at succeeding.”  
James had read a few opinion pieces in the Daily Prophet along those lines and dismissed them, but seeing the fanatical gleam in these peoples eyes he suddenly realised that they were in earnest. Sirius recognised the Pureblood rhetoric he’d been fed since childhood and felt sick.  
“Whatever you might believe, you will never succeed here.” Remus said with conviction.  
“You would say that, Halfblood.” Malfoy spat. “Your mother -”  
“Don’t you dare!” Sirius had his wand up against Malfoy’s throat in a heartbeat. “Don’t you dare insult his mother.”  
All four Marauders had drawn their wands now, forming a battle line around Sirius.  
“You can’t say anything against _my_ mother, dear cousin, but I will assure you that Remus is right. Take your bigotry out of here, before I hex your face off.”  
“You never did know how to pick your battles, Sirius.” Narcissa smiled sympathetically. “It’s not too late yet. Rejoin us now, and our Lord will show you mercy.”  
“Get lost.” Sirius spat. Seeing he was outnumbered, Malfoy made a placating gesture at the six Gryffindors, and led his friends away.  
They didn’t drop their wands until the three were out of sight, but then sagged in relief.  
“Well that was a fight narrowly avoided.” Samuel sighed. “Thanks for helping us out guys.”  
“You’d think they’d know better than to try us, what with our family heading up the SWAMP.” said Marlene. “But they just can’t help themselves.”  
“What’s the SWAMP?” asked Peter.  
“Oh haven’t you heard? It was in the Prophet and everything last week. The Society for Wizards Against Muggleborn Persecution. It’s just a bunch of people from all over, coming together to oppose You-Know-Who and their followers. My parents started it. Say we can’t expect this to just blow over, we’ve got to take a stand against them.”  
“The more people we can convince to join the better, so if you guys are interested…” Samuel handed them some leaflets.  
“Anyways, we’d better get going. Thanks again, guys!” Marlene smiled and waved, tugging her brother along.  
The Marauders returned to their Butterbeers in the Leaky Cauldron, but none of them really felt like celebrating anymore.

_Wednesday, 18 August 1976_

Lily was sat on her bed. She’d just received a letter from Marlene, telling her all about a new initiative her parents had started. She’d included a flyer that read:

>   
_Society for Wizards Against Muggleborn Persecution_
> 
> _In the last few years, the political climate has increasingly grown more hateful and exclusive towards people of non-magical descent. Opinions which were hitherto expressed only in whispers, or in the seclusion of one's home, are now trumpeted with pride._  
_The person who calls himself Lord Voldemort, and his growing number of followers, need to be brought before the Wizengamot for crimes against the Statue of Secrecy, misuse of Muggle Artifacts, and repeated use of Unforgivable Curses._  
_Up until this point, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement has been unable to apprehend these criminals, through a lack of decisive and coordinated action._
> 
> _We propose:_  
_\- The immediate arrest of Lord Voldemort and those who call themselves Death Eaters_  
_\- A stronger prosecution of Unforgivable Cursing_  
_\- A strengthening of the Department for Misuse of Muggle Artifacts, to better protect our non-magical neighbours and friends._  
_\- Increasing the funds to the Auror Department, so we stand a chance of defending ourselves against the current attacks on our freedom._
> 
> _We urge our fellow wizards and witches to join us in this cause and return our world to peace and prosperity._  


Lily read it with mixed feelings. Though she was glad that someone was categorically denouncing the views the Death Eaters had been spewing - the Ministry had been notably silent these last few years for fear of losing gifts and funds from the old Pureblood families - she also worried about her friend’s safety. It was one thing to oppose a Death Eater when you came across them, but to publicly challenge _Lord Voldemort_ was something else entirely. So far no one had tried it, and still a great many families had ended up missing. Lily didn’t want to see the McKinnons on next’s week front page of the Daily Prophet.  
Her mum called her downstairs, pulling her away from her misgivings. She’d almost forgotten they were celebrating her OWL results coming through. Only O’s and E’s, she felt quite pleased.  
She came downstairs to a richly decorated dining room: there were garlands and little flags and a banner that read “Congratulations” in curling golden letters.  
“Oh mum, you’ve really outdone yourself.” Lily cried out in surprise. “It’s lovely.”  
“It’s not every day my daughter gets top grades on her OWL exams.” She hugged Lily.  
“_One_ of your daughters. I exist, too, in case you’d forgotten.” Petunia said with a scowl, as she carried an enormous iced cake from the kitchen.  
“Oh Tuney, please.” Their mother scolded, but she kissed Petunia on the head in passing. “Can’t you just be happy for your sister, this once?”  
Petunia set down the cake with a bang, fuming.  
“Of course! I am _so_ happy for perfect Lily, with her perfect grades! Who even cares about me when she's around?”  
“Calm down dear.” Mr Evans put a hand on her shoulder. “We’ve had this conversation before, can we please not do this now?”  
“I think now’s as good a time as any! I mean this is just typical. I graduate, no one says a word about it. Lily passes some exams, and we’re having a party.” Petunia eyed her sister furiously.  
“That’s not fair, we took you out for dinner!” Mrs Evans argued.  
“Yes, but she wasn’t there!” Petunia pointed at Lily. “Yet now I have to sit here and pretend to care about her freak-school exams!”  
“Petunia!” Mr Evans said sternly.  
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there, Tuney.” said Lily. She was quite touched that her sister cared about it at all. “How about we do it over next week?”  
“Oh stop it, Lily.” Petunia hissed. “You don’t have to _prove_ how perfect you are, everyone already worships you!”  
“Then what _do_ you want?” Lily replied hotly.  
“I want…” Petunia faltered. “You know what I want? To not have to live with a freak like you. To live in a house where things act as they should, where there aren’t owls arriving at all hours of the day and night, where no one talks about things like… dementors or… or Quadditch! I want the people in my life to be normal, not bloody_freaks_.”  
Lily regarded her sister sadly. She'd thought they had been doing so well this summer. They’d even gone swimming once, and she had foolishly hoped that Petunia had gotten over her envy.  
“It’s Quidditch.” Lily said quietly. She turned around and ran upstairs, tears leaking out of her eyes. She heard her parents and sister continue to yell downstairs.  
The next morning Petunia took a small suitcase and moved to London.


	7. Recommence

_Wednesday, 1 September 1976_

Lily made her way down the train. A compartment door swung open and almost knocked her off her feet.  
James Potter and Peter Pettigrew came tumbling out, laughing as they pushed each other playfully. When James spotted Lily he quickly righted himself, trying to adopt an air of cool nonchalance. They regarded each other appraisingly for a moment, both remembering the last words that had passed between them.  
“Potter.” Lily nodded awkwardly. She was forcefully reminded of calling him an arrogant toerag.  
“Evans.” He smiled tentatively. “How was your summer?”  
“Fine.” She did _not_ want to discuss that right now, least of all with James Potter. “I was looking for..”  
“Remus?” James assumed. “He’s just gone up to the Prefect carriage. I’m sure you can still catch him.”  
“I wasn’t looking for Remus.” said Lily. James looked hopeful for a second, until she continued: “Is Sirius around?”  
James' face fell ever so slightly as he pointed to the compartment.  
“Thanks.” She went inside and as she closed the door she heard James whisper “Sirius? Did you hear that, Wormy?” in an incredulous tone.  
“Well this is a surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure?”  
Sirius Black was draped dramatically across one of the berths, tossing Bertie Bott’s all-flavored beans up into the air and catching them in his mouth. Well, mostly catching them. Lily noticed a littering of colourful beans on the floor beneath him.  
“It’s nice to see you too, drama queen.” Lily smiled, indicating his elaborate pose.  
“Alright, I’ll assume a more acceptable position.” Sirius sat up, sweeping a few stray beans from his robes. “But only because it’s you that’s asking.”  
He put his back straight, his feet together, and regarded Lily with a bland smile. He wondered why she was here. Though they had been relatively friendly over the years - most of her animosity had always been with James - they weren’t exactly joined at the hip. Especially after the events of last June Sirius had assumed she would avoid the lot of them as much as possible for the remainder of their Hogwarts school career.  
“I heard about what happened.” She started.  
His smile tightened. “And what exactly would that be?”  
“Your parents, kicking you out.” She continued. “And I just wanted to say I’m really sorry.”  
He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but this wasn’t it. He looked at her seriously for a long time, and she began to fear she had overstepped the mark. He considered a number of possible answers, ranging from angry to sarcastic, but finally settled for:  
“Thanks, Lily.”  
She gave him a relieved smiled.  
“How is your brother?” Lily asked carefully.  
“I don’t know, haven’t spoken to him since I left.” Sirius admitted. “I tried sending him a letter, but it came back unopened. I don’t know whether he saw it, but he definitely didn’t read it.”  
“I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to have a difficult relationship with a sibling. _My_ sister hates me.”  
“I didn’t know you had a sister.” He looked surprised.  
“She’s a muggle. Never forgave me for being a witch.” Lily smiled painfully. “But every now and then, she’ll forget that she dislikes me. And we’ll be talking, and it’s just like old times, before magic or Hogwarts or anything, when we were just sisters. And of course, she’s always reminded that she hates me eventually, by something that I say, or something that I do. But in those little moments, I remember that she’s still my sister. And we’re family, no matter what.”  
She looked away from Sirius’ intent gaze, suddenly embarrassed.  
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to make this about me. All I want to say is: don’t give up just yet. He’s still your brother, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now. And if you ever need to moan about him to someone who’ll get it, I’m here for you. I _am_ your new best friend, after all.” Lily added, switching to a more light-hearted tone. Sirius barked out a laugh.  
“I wasn’t expecting you to take the title this seriously.” He winked. “But I’m strangely glad that you did. If we could just make you a little less uptight, I think you would make a splendid Marauder.”  
Lily burst out laughing. “You know no one actually calls you guys that, right?”  
“Of course they do!” Sirius cried out indignantly, before adding: “But really, what do they call us though?”  
“Depends on the day, really. Potter and his stupid gang. Remus and his weird friends. Those little shits. Black and his annoying posse,...” She pretended to count out the list on her fingers, but couldn’t hold her laughter when she saw Sirius’ face.  
“Remus and his weird friends?” He repeated. “Are you sure they didn’t say Remus and his cool friends? Or Remus and his one particularly attractive friend?”  
“No, though I sometimes get asked about my particularly annoying friend.” Remus walked in.  
“Well, they obviously mean Prongs by that.” Sirius moved over so Remus could sit next to him.  
“I have to second that.” said Lily. “I definitely meant Potter.”  
They laughed heartily, Remus looked questioningly from Lily to Sirius. Lily sobered up quickly.  
“I’m sorry Remus, I didn’t mean to intrude. I just came to give Sirius my condolences, since I heard he had to spend the entire summer with Potter.”  
Remus quickly assured her that she was welcome to stay, though a part of him had revolted when he saw her and Sirius laughing together, cosied up in their compartment.  
“No, really, I still need to get changed and it’s almost getting dark, so I’d better hurry.” With a wave at the two boys, she made her way back down the train.  
“So what was that all about?” Remus raised his eyebrow at Sirius.  
“What she said. She wanted to say she was sorry about what happened. News on this train travels faster than a Nimbus.” He shook his head in annoyance. Remus watched the colours of the sunset move across Sirius’ dark hair.  
“That was nice of her. I didn’t realize you two were friends.” He tried to distract himself.  
“I think we’ll make a Marauder of her yet, Moony.” Sirius smiled. “Just you wait.”  
Remus didn’t make an answer. He wasn't sure how he felt about this new development.

_ Thursday, 2 September 1976_

Their first day of classes had been packed full, and had consisted of them being given both homework for Charms and Defence, but also the task to set up a personal project for Herbology.  
Lily was going over her options with Alice Johnson. Alice was a seventh-year, planning to take her NEWT’s this year so she could go on to become an Auror. She had a true gift for Herbology, something she and Lily had bonded over in their fourth year. Ever since, they’d spent their Thursday evenings studying together in the Library.  
“I was thinking a Snargaluff, but it’s supposed to be a personal project, and you definitely need at least two people for that.” Lily explained. “So then I was thinking of a Venomous Tentacula because it’s got a lot of potion-applications.”  
“Oh, you really don’t want to do that one.” Alice warned her. “I did it last year, and I’ve still got scars. They can be amenable on a good day, but mostly they’re just nasty.”  
“Alright, _no to the Venomous Tentacula_ then.” Lily struck off the last name on her list.  
“What about a Moly?” suggested Alice. “You can also use it for potions and such. And it’s quite pretty.”  
“Hmm, good one!” Lily excitedly started flipping through her battered copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. “It says here that it can also be used to counteract enchantments. This could be really interesting! I can test its applications on different types of enchantments and compare it to other means of Disenchantment.”  
The girls eagerly started to speculate about all the different ways this could be applied practically when they heard a sneering voice coming from behind them.  
“Merlin’s beard, you two are such nerds! As if anyone cares about a stupid plant.”  
Lily didn’t have to turn around to recognise Avery’s voice.  
“I guess that’s why you failed Herbology three years in a row.” Alice replied sweetly.  
“Shut up, Johnson!” He replied angrily. “And I don’t know why you even bother getting your NEWT’s Evans. No one will be hiring the likes of you, regardless.”  
Lily felt the blood rush to her head and before she even knew what she was doing, her hand had gone to her wand and she was pointing it at Avery’s face.  
“The likes of me? What exactly would that be?” She hissed. “Someone who can curse you witless before you’ve even blinked?”  
He looked at her wand with apprehension, trying not to look scared in front of the other students.  
At that moment Madame Pince passed by and said: “No wands out in the Library, Miss Evans!”  
With a withering look at Avery, Lily put her wand away and sat back down.  
“If you are not here to study or request a book, I suggest you make your way out, Mister Avery.” Madam Pince said sharply when he didn’t move. Grumbling, Avery threw Lily a dirty look and moved away.  
They returned to Herbology, but neither of the girls could muster the same enthusiasm as before.  
“Does that happen often?” Alice asked quietly. “People commenting on your Blood Status?”  
“Not that much.” Lily answered, not looking up from her books. “And it’s usually more subtle than this. People will say things like "You wouldn’t understand, being muggleborn" or "Don’t worry yourself about it", as if I’m stupid. Or they’ll spend ages explaining things to me, as though it’s my first day learning about magic, not my sixth year at this school. Or they’ll “compliment” me, saying _how smart_ I am for someone without magical parents. Most of the time people aren’t downright insulting, but they also make sure you never forget that you don’t quite fit in.”  
“I’m sorry Lily. If they knew you better, no one would doubt for a second that you belong.” Alice smiled kindly. Lily knew she meant well, but she didn’t feel like Alice quite understood the point.  
“The thing is, I shouldn’t have to be smart. I shouldn’t have to be top of the class in every subject, just to be _accepted_. There are plenty of Purebloods who wouldn’t find their own wands unless you pointed them to it, yet no one questions their capabilities. So why is it different for Muggleborns?”  
“Of course, I didn’t mean to sound like a patronizing Pureblood.” Alice apologised.  
“You didn’t, I don’t mean to take it out on you Alice.” Lily put her hand out to her friend. “Let’s just talk about nicer things. Like Venomous Tentaculars and Molies, for instance.”  
“Two things no one in their right mind would ever describe as nice.” Alice laughed. The girls got a warning look from Madam Pince and bent back over their books more quietly.  
Later they said goodbye on the first floor, Alice heading downstairs to the Hufflepuff common room, while Lily went up. She’d only gone a few steps before being halted by someone calling her name.  
Remus Lupin came running up the stairs after her.  
“I was just leaving the Library, thought I would walk back with you.” He said, slightly out of breath.  
“Sure.” Lily smiled welcomingly. She’d actually been meaning to talk to Remus. “Is everything alright, between you and me?”  
“What do you mean?” Remus asked perplexed.  
“I just got the feeling something was off when I saw you on the train yesterday. And I know that things didn’t exactly end on a high last year, so I wanted to make sure that we’re good.”  
“Of course we are.” Remus felt embarrassed. “I was just surprised to see you with Sirius, that’s all.”  
Lily looked at his face with a searching look. He quickly looked away, afraid of what she might see there.  
“Good, I’ve always considered you a friend. I would be very sad if that had changed because of the things I said.”  
“Don’t worry, I think those things needed to be said. I’m just glad you did it, so I didn’t have to.” Remus grinned.  
“Professor McGonagall gave me the patrolling schedule this morning.” She fumbled through her bag to find it. “We’re off duty today, but we’ve got tomorrow night and next Monday.”  
Remus took the schedule and looked it over. Monday would be quite close to the full moon. He hoped he would feel up to it.  
“Can I keep this?” asked Remus.  
“Yeah, I’ve already copied it.”  
They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, who was talking to another portrait of a small nun. She looked rather annoyed at being disturbed.  
“Password?”  
“Magno Animo.” Remus replied, and the portrait swung forward to admit them. They hadn’t set two steps inside before being approached by an excited James Potter.  
“Finally, Moony, we were waiting for you. We think we’ve found a solution to our navigational problem!” He started to pull Remus away to their table in the corner. Remus sent Lily a long-suffering smile and a wave, before becoming engrossed in whatever it was they were up to. Lily decided she’d rather not know and joined Marlene and Mary by the fire.  
They were discussing Quidditch.  
“So we’ll definitely need a new Beater, and last year’s Seeker could be improved upon…” Marlene was saying.  
“Your brother was last year’s Seeker.” Lily interjected with a laugh.  
“Exactly. And I also think we should consider whether to keep Isaura on or not.”  
Marlene had been made Quidditch Captain over the summer and was obviously taking the matter very seriously.  
“The only half-decent player I’m sure of is Potter.” She concluded.  
“Please don’t let him hear that.” joked Lily. “Besides, you forgot about yourself! You’re the best Chaser Gryffindor has seen in years, or so I’ve been told.”  
“That is true.” Marlene conceded. “But we still lost to Ravenclaw last year, and back then we still had _both_ the Prewett brothers playing for us.”  
The memory of this defeat was apparently still playing heavily on her mind.  
“Well, I was thinking of trying out.” Mary said suddenly. Lily and Marlene both looked at her in shock. Apart from Lily herself, there was no one less suited for playing Quidditch than Mary McDonald.  
“S-Sure.” Marlene smiled encouragingly. “Everyone’s welcome to try out, but you know that I can’t make any exceptions just because we’re friends, right? If there’s someone more suited, I’d be obliged to take them instead of...” Marlene trailed off when she saw Mary’s wide grin.  
“I'm just pulling your chain!” She giggled. “Honestly, you should have seen your faces! You’d both make terrible liars.”  
Lily and Marlene laughed in relief, and Marlene went back to writing out diagrams and different compositions of the team, while Mary made suggestions here and there. She wasn’t athletically gifted, but she _was_ a master strategist.  
Lily sat back and smiled. Hogwarts wasn’t perfect, but it felt good to be back.


	8. Rising Stars

Lily and Mary were sat in the stands while Marlene was shouting down in the Quidditch Pitch. A small dozen of Gryffindor students had shown up for tryouts and were now lined up against the members of last year’s team.  
They’d already done some basic flying drills to root out the hopeless cases. A second-year had flown straight into the side of the stands and dropped 10 feet down to the ground. It didn’t seem like he had broken anything, other than his dream of becoming a prodigy Quidditch player.  
Marlene was now explaining that they would be divided by preferred position and each try out for their spots. She cut a very poised and professional figure, but Mary and Lily knew she’d been dead nervous about today. She’d been talking of being a Quidditch Captain like her mom since she arrived at Hogwarts six years ago, and now that the moment had finally come she was freaking out. Under Sarah McKinnon’s guidance, Gryffindor had won the Quidditch Cup five years in a row, a record that had since stood unbroken. Having Professor McGonagall remind her of that this morning hadn’t exactly helped Marlene’s jitters.  
“Have I missed much?”  
Alice Johnson sat down next to Lily, taking a bite of a wrapped croissant.  
“You do realize that these are the tryouts for the Gryffindor team, right?” Lily asked. “No enemy spying allowed.”  
“My cousin Aurora is trying out for Chaser!” Alice said defensively. Her cheeks turned slightly pink, however.  
“Alright…” Lily said, but she glanced suspiciously at her friend out of the corner of her eye.  
The keepers were trying out first. It became immediately clear that Frank Longbottom, who’d been the team’s Keeper for the past four years, wouldn’t be replaced. He caught every Quaffle the players threw at him with seeming ease, at one point even using the tip of his left toe. Alice cheered very loudly every time he made a save, earning her another suspicious look from Lily and Mary.  
Choosing a Keeper had been easy, but the beaters were quite a different story. Four people were trying out for the position: Isaura Arlington, who had been on the team last year, a burly fourth year, a girl with freckles who Lily was almost sure was a third-year and Luke Hawkins.   
Luke was a seventh-year who Mary had dated for a short while last year. Though he was, according to Mary, "a decent snog", no such praise could be given about his Quidditch skills.   
The only time he actually managed to hit the Bludger, it careened straight into Marlene's face. Had she actually been participating instead of refereeing from the stands, it might have scored him some points, but now it led Marlene to end the Beaters' tryout early by announcing Isaura and David Ashton, the fourth year, would be joining the team.  
Luke showed his disapproval by throwing his bat with unprecedented accuracy at Marlene's unsuspecting back, only just missing the mark thanks to Samuel pulling his sister aside at the last second. Luke was quickly dismissed from the Quidditch Pitch, while an increasingly irritable Marlene went on to test the Seekers.   
At this point, Mary and Marlene were joined by Remus, Sirius, and Peter.   
"How's it going? Looks like someone disagreed with McKinnon's face." said Sirius, pointing at the blooming bruise on the left side of Marlene's face.   
"Yeah, Luke Hawkins tried out for Beater." Mary explained. "His aim's about as accurate as Professor Featherstone's predictions. "   
They all laughed. The Divination professor was notorious for her wildly inaccurate visions of the future, often helped along by a shot of Fire whiskey.   
"Have they tried out the Chasers yet?" Remus asked, looking at the dot in the sky that was James.   
"No, Marlene's chosen a Keeper and a Beater, now she's starting on the Seekers." said Lily. "I think she wants to keep the Chasers for last because she already knows who she's going to pick."   
They all became distracted by a commotion on the field. The Seekers had lined up on one side of the Pitch, but Samuel McKinnon wasn't among them. He seemed to be in a heated argument with his sister. Marlene was gesturing furiously towards the line of Seekers, while Samuel was standing with his arms crossed, obviously not intending to join the line. Finally, Marlene threw her hands up and marched away, Samuel relaxing his tight posture once she’d turned her back. While Marlene was instructing the Seekers, Lily noticed James Potter whispering to Samuel, clapping him on the shoulder.  
Whatever was going on, Lily sincerely hoped the boys weren’t deliberately messing with Marlene, or she might have to acquaint them with the new jinxes she’d learned over the summer.  
The three remaining Seekers were all quite good, but in the end a second-year named Rosie Lawson was chosen. She was tiny, but incredibly quick and agile, and had managed to get the Snitch in under 3 minutes every time.  
Then came the Chasers. With Potter and Marlene staying on the team, there would only be one position to fill, yet 7 people had shown up to try out. Apparently Samuel wanted to try out for Chaser as well, rather than stay on as Seeker.  
“I hope he’s thought this through.” Mary whispered to Lily. “The competition for Chasers is a lot harder. It would be a bit awkward if Marlene’s got to throw him off the team.”  
Lily nodded in agreement, not taking her eyes off the field. Marlene and Potter were playing against the other Chasers, while Frank was manning the goalposts. She didn’t like to admit it, but Potter was quite the Quidditch player. He seemed to control his broomstick by thought rather than movement, and he never once lost control of the Quaffle.  
Samuel McKinnon wasn’t far behind, though. They quickly became aware of why he’d wanted to try out for Chaser. He left the other Chasers in the dust, scoring almost as many goals as Marlene. Alice’s cousin did alright, but ultimately had to admit defeat.  
After twenty minutes Marlene blew her whistle to signal the end of the match and grudgingly told Samuel that he’d made the team.   
“Thank you all for coming out! To those who didn’t make the team, please feel free to try again next year. And to those who did make the team: welcome, and congratulations.” Marlene shouted over the wind. She waved her arms to indicate that they were free to go but grabbed hold of her brother’s arm before he could take off.  
“Thanks for the heads up, brother.” She frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me before that you didn’t want to play as Seeker anymore?”   
“Because you’d try to talk me out of it.” Samuel shrugged. “And because I wanted a chance to tryout fair and square. This way no one can accuse you of favouritism, because you didn’t know.”  
“I’d still appreciate it if you didn’t spring these things on me in the middle of tryouts.” She was still frowning, but from the way she bumped his shoulder he knew he’d been forgiven. He grinned, pleased with himself. He’d only taken on the position of Seeker last year because it’d been the only one available, and though he had been decent at it, he knew that his true talents lay in Chasing. He was also eager to prove that Marlene wasn’t the only one to inherit their mother’s talents.

Marlene walked out of the changing rooms to see Lily and Mary waiting for her.  
“Go Marlene!” Mary cheered. “You did great!”  
“ You really did, Marlee, congratulations.” Lily smiled, putting her arm around the other girl. The three girls made their way back to the castle in high spirits, excitedly discussing the new team and their prospects for this year’s Quidditch Cup.  
James saw them giggling in the distance when he made it out of the changing room. His friends were still sitting in the stands, so he waved them over.  
“Alright everyone’s left, let’s go.” He told them, and they made their way out of the Pitch.  
They snuck off to the Forbidden Forest, making sure they stayed out of Hagrid’s line of sight.  
Once they reached the edge of the trees they stopped to confer.  
“Let’s start by mapping the first 200 yards of the Forest, we shouldn’t really need more than that.” said James.  
“Honestly, I don’t even see why we have to map the Forest at all.” Sirius complained. “Wasn’t the Map supposed to just get us out of the castle?”  
“Stop whining, Padfoot!” James smacked him in the back of the head. “One of these days a prank is going to involve the Forest, and you’re going to thank me.”  
“Let’s just get started, alright?” said Peter. “I’d like to make it back in time for lunch.”  
The boys split up and made their way into the Forest. It was a tedious bit of work to mark out all the trees and boulders, and Remus was starting to agree with Sirius on its being unnecessary. He’d only made it about a hundred yards in when the hair on his arms suddenly stood up straight. Stuffing his parchment in his back pocket and taking out his wand, Remus slowly turned around on the spot.   
“Lumos.” He murmured quietly. The light of his wand reflected off of the tree bark, but didn’t show anything else. Remus lowered his wand, sure that he was imagining things, and went back to mapping out his surroundings. He was so engrossed in his task that he almost ran straight into a young centaur.  
He jumped back quickly, almost dropping his parchment in the process.  
“I’m so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.” He apologised.  
“Back again so soon, Mister Lupin?” The centaur had a melodic voice, and regarded Remus with piercing blue eyes. At closer inspection he looked even younger than Remus had first thought, he seemed barely older than Remus himself.  
“Have we met before?” Remus asked, surprised that the Centaur knew his name.  
“Our paths have crossed only last week when the moon was full.” The centaur answered, gazing up at the blue sky. “Though I suppose you cannot be expected to remember that.”  
The centaur turned his eyes away from the sky and looked back at Remus.  
“You should be careful, young werewolf.”  
“I’m sorry, I know the Forest is supposed to be forbidden, but I’m only going in just a short way.” He indicated the papers he was holding.  
“The planets are aligning in mysterious ways, showing our world has a dark future ahead.” The centaur looked hard at Remus. “The dark will rise, and rise again, and that which seems unbreakable will shatter.”  
“What do you mean?” Remus was starting to get uncomfortable with the unblinking stare of the centaur fixed on him.  
“Your friend’s legacy ripples far into the future, but you should beware. Sometimes our friends are our worst enemies.”  
The centaur’s eyes drifted away from Remus’ face and back up to the sky.  
“Mercury will shine bright tonight.”  
Without another word he wandered off again, leaving Remus confused and annoyed.   
He finished his markings and wandered over to where Sirius was working.   
“I just ran into a centaur. I forgot how irritating those can be!”  
“Was it the really white one we ran into last week?” asked Sirius.  
“I guess. He had these really blue eyes.”  
“You were looking in his eyes, were you?” asked Sirius innocently, turning away from Remus.  
“No, it was just really noticeable!” Remus said too quickly.  
Sirius barked out a laugh and looked over his shoulder.  
“I was just joking, no need to get so defensive Moony.”  
He marked the last of the trees on his parchment and looked over his shoulder. “Last one out of the Forest loses!”  
He transformed into a large black dog and took off, leaving Remus to chase after him yelling swear words.


	9. Settling scores

“So they’re getting as many signatures as possible, and then next month the SWAMP will present it to the Minister and the Wizengamot to press for stronger measures against the Death Eaters.” Lily explained to Remus over their steaming cauldron of what would hopefully become a Wound-Cleaning Potion.  
The first Potions class a few weeks back had been a bit tense. Lily had paused awkwardly by the door to check out which spots were free. The past five years she had always shared a desk with Severus, and he had looked at her hopefully, moving his stuff aside to make room. But with a sigh of relief Lily had noticed that the spot next to Remus had been empty, since Peter hadn’t gotten into NEWT-level Potions. Ever since, they’d been working together, and had their desk not been right next to that of Sirius and James, Lily would have thought the situation perfectly resolved.  
As it was, a small rivalry had sprung up between James and Lily as to who was better at Potions. Although James was blessed with his father’s talents and tips, Lily had always had a natural feeling for Potions, which left them quite equally tied.  
“Do you think it will make much of a difference, this petition?” Remus asked while stirring the Potion counterclockwise.  
“Probably not, but it’s better than nothing.” Lily shrugged. She glanced over at James and Sirius’ cauldron, which had already started emitting a pearly purple fume.  
“Add a clockwise stir.” Lily said to Remus, at the same time James said: “Might want to stir that up a bit, Evans.”  
Remus sighed and did as he was told, pointedly ignoring the looks that were being shared over his head.  
“If the petition doesn’t result in anything substantial, Marlene said they’re thinking about getting people together to march on the Ministry and demand change in person.” Lily continued. Their potion was now bright purple, as the instructions said it should be. Lily added the crushed fluxweed seeds and removed the cauldron from the fire while continuing to stir.  
“Won’t that be dangerous?” Remus looked serious. “All those people gathering in one spot. If the Death Eaters wanted to take out their opponents that would give them the perfect opportunity.”  
“I’m sure that the people in the march would outnumber the Death Eaters by far. Besides, isn’t it better to fight than sit around, waiting for them to pick us off one by one?”  
“I’m not saying we should do nothing, of course. It just seems like a lot could go wrong.”  
“Oh come on, Moony, don’t be so gloomy.” James interrupted. “If they do a march, I for one will definitely be going.”  
He snuck a glance at Lily, but she just huffed and concentrated on her potion. He noted with dismay that hers looked quite finished, while his and Sirius’ had turned more towards blue than a true purple. He quickly looked back at his book, and swore when he saw you were supposed to get the cauldron off of the fire when you added the fluxweed seeds.  
“Something wrong, Potter?” Lily asked sweetly.  
“Turn off your fires and put your potions on the left side of your desks.” Professor Slughorn called from the front of the classroom. He started walking around to check their work, sometimes nodding approvingly, often sighing in disappointment. When he reached their desk his face cleared up.  
“Ah, let’s see who’s got it this time, shall we?”  
He moved over to James and Sirius’ cauldron, smiling widely.  
“Very well, Mister Potter, quite good for a first try. Do I do think you forgot to turn down your fire before the last step, am I correct?”  
“Yes, Professor.” James looked annoyed with himself.  
“Ah Miss Evans! Perfect as always.” Slughorn exclaimed, beaming at Lily. “I couldn’t have done it better myself, dear girl. Ten points to Gryffindor, that seems fair.”  
He moved on, awarding another ten points to Snape and Avery, because they too had managed a decent potion. With a clap and a reminder to hand in their homework, Professor Slughorn dismissed their class.  
“So that’s four for me now, and two for you if I’m counting correctly.” Lily smirked at James.  
“Bah, you just got lucky I was distracted. Next time I’ll be on my game.” James promised.  
“May the best witch win.” Lily slung her bag over her shoulder and sauntered out of the classroom with a wide grin on her face.  
“Oh, it is on, Evans!” James yelled after her. He started gathering his stuff and missed the look of loathing Severus Snape sent his way.  
“You know I think she was right about the petition, it’s not going to work.” Sirius said to Remus. “I doubt any Death Eater is going to care about a piece of paper, regardless of how many people have signed it.”  
“So what do you suggest?”  
“I suggest we start fighting back.” Sirius looked determined. “How many more people have to die or disappear before the Ministry does something? It’s been six years, Moony. Six years of more and more people spouting their anti-Muggle rhetoric and anyone who stands against it either gets silenced or disappears.”  
They had left the classroom and were making their way upstairs to Gryffindor tower.  
“The first step of fighting back is getting the right people together.” James reasoned. “If the SWAMP doesn’t accomplish anything else, at least it does that.”  
“True, but by doing it so publicly it just gives You-Know-Who a nice clean target.” Remus argued. “Meanwhile those masked bastards get to stay anonymous and safe.”  
“So you want us all to hide behind masks like cowards?” Sirius challenged angrily.  
“No, I wish we could find a way to take off theirs.” Remus placated, putting his hand on Sirius’ tense shoulder. With a sigh the other boy relaxed.  
“It just makes me so angry that this isn’t getting better.” Sirius admitted.  
“We can start by fighting the injustices we see around us. Once we get the Map up and running we can keep an eye on the castle.”  
“And here I thought we were making it to help us prank old Snivellus!” Sirius joked.  
“I’d like to see you try, Black.” An angry voice hissed from behind them. The Marauders smiles hardened into grimaces.  
“I know you’re infatuated with me, Snivellus, but really this is _stalking_!” James turned around to face Snape, his wand ready by his side. He was met with a look of hatred that took him by surprise in its intensity.  
“You stay away from her, Potter.” Snape spat. His wand was pointed at James’ face, a deranged look entering his eyes. The other boys raised their wands as well. “I know what you’re trying to do, but I won’t let you take her from me!”  
“Seriously, Snivellus, sit this one out mate.” Sirius said, an edge of worry to his tone. “I think you’re starting to lose it.”  
“She was my friend!” Snape screamed. “If you hadn’t ruined everything, she would still be! And now you’re trying to be her friends, but she’s mine!”  
“Assuming it’s Lily you’re talking about, I think that would rather be her own decision, don’t you agree?” Remus said calmly.  
“She can’t… She doesn’t know…” He muttered. “I know what’s best for her. If she knew what you were- “ He spat at Remus. “- she would never want to be near you.”  
Remus face drained, but his wand stayed on Snape’s face.  
“Shut up!” Sirius bellowed, moving closer to Snape. James put a hand on his arm to hold him back. “You despicable excuse for…”  
“Don’t bother Sirius, he’s not worth it. I’ll let you get away with it this once, Snape, but don’t ever insult my friends again.” James spared him a loathing glance and pulled his friends along with him. Sirius sent him a confused glance, not understanding why they were letting this opportunity slip. They’d only taken two steps when a curse flew past James ear.  
“Alright, that’s it Snivellus!” He spun around and sent a countercurse flying in Snape’s direction. He blocked it with a swiping gesture, but wasn’t fast enough to dodge Remus’ “Stupefy!”.  
The Stunning Spell knocked Snape into the wall behind him, where he slid down into a crumpled heap. Sirius raised his wand to add another curse, but James stopped him with a nod of the head. _Hexing people, just because you can. You make me sick._ Lily’s words rang through his mind.  
“Like I said, he’s not worth it.” He looked over at Snape’s immobile form, whose eyes were still conveying anger and hatred. “If you have a problem with Evans’ friends, I suggest you take it up with her. Meanwhile, I will not let _you_ decide who I can and cannot talk to, Snivellus.”  
He turned away and picked up his bag where he’d dropped it.  
“The sooner we get the Map up and running, the better. I wouldn’t mind being able to avoid that one.” James nodded at Snape derisively.  
“I wouldn’t mind a chance to curse him.” Sirius growled, the remark about Remus still playing on his mind.

From that day on the animosity that had existed between James and Snape escalated into a full-blown blood feud. Though their altercations were less public - Sirius suspected that both of them wished to stay under Lily’s radar - they became a lot more frequent and a lot more bitter. Peter had to go to the hospital wing on two separate occasions and one time James had narrowly escaped falling down three flights of stairs.  
Finishing the Map had now become a matter of urgency, and adding to that Marlene’s obsessive Quidditch training, by the time the first match of the school year arrived James was in a foul mood.  
When Lily came down to breakfast he was shovelling food into his mouth angrily, as though the scrambled eggs had personally offended his mother. The sight of him made Lily giggle. He had been out of sorts for days, though she couldn’t figure out why, and when she sat down across from him and Marlene, he snapped: “Something funny, Evans?”  
The effect of his anger was kind of undone by the egg yolk hanging from the side of his mouth. Lily bit her lip to keep from laughing.  
“Seems like someone didn’t get enough sleep tonight.” She looked at Marlene, who looked like death. “Make that two someones. How are you feeling, Marlee?”  
“Hmmhg.”  
“It’ll be fine.” Mary sat down next to Lily. “You’ve been training for this almost every night for the past three weeks.”  
“Besides, Slytherin doesn’t even have half a decent team.” Lily soothed, looking over at the green-robed players two tables down. “You are going to wipe them out, I’m sure of it.”  
Marlene just kept looking at her food as if she was going to be sick, while James had now moved on to downing a huge bowl of porridge, still scowling.  
With a sigh Lily picked up some toast. Better to leave them to their sulking. She turned to Mary instead.  
“Have you heard anything new about your neighbour?”  
“No.” Mary’s brow furrowed in worry. “I don’t have a good feeling about it. Nothing to do but wait, I suppose.”  
“It’s only been a week, they could still turn up.” Lily tried to reassure her, though the words felt hollow. Everyone knew that when people went missing these days, they didn’t come back.  
Their conversation turned to some small talk about the weather conditions, hoping to draw Marlene out of her stupor, but she stayed quiet until they made their way to the Quidditch Pitch. Feeling like she’d swallowed a stone, she said goodbye to Lily and Mary, who wished her luck with bright smiles.  
She walked into the changing rooms and put on her Quidditch robes, flexing her fingers around the handle of her broom reflexively while waiting for the rest of the team to get ready. Steadying herself with a deep breath she walked over to the games board and went over their strategy one last time. With a determined nod at her teammates, she said: “Let’s win this game!”  
They walked out onto the pitch in formation, facing their opponents. Marlene stepped forward to shake Todd Blaise's hand. With a leering grin, he grabbed her hand and tried to crush it. His face fell when she crushed his hand right back.  
“Not what you expected from a girl?” She smiled sweetly. “Wait till you see me fly.”  
With a flick of her hair she returned to her team and mounted her broomstick.  
“On my mark… Three… two… one.” The shrill sound of the whistle cut through the air and the players soared off into the air.  
Marlene caught the Quaffle and sped up to the Slytherin goal post. When she had to duck for an oncoming Bludger she passed the ball to James, who scored a point past Blaise’s open left easily.  
“Potter scores! 0-10 to Gryffindor!”  
Marlene felt her nerves go down. They could do this. With renewed determination, she went after Lyra Black who was now holding onto the Quaffle. David sent a Bludger hurtling her way, but she ducked and managed to hold onto the Quaffle. At the last minute she passed it to Avery, who tried to score.  
“A quick pass from Black to Avery, but Longbottom saves the day! And the Quaffle goes back to McKinnon - other McKinnon - Potter - ooh that was a well-aimed bludger by Wayne! Hindley has a hold of the Quaffle and is making for the Gryffindor goal post- and….”  
A loud yell erupted from the stadium as a Bludger hit Frank Longbottom in the face, allowing Hindley to score a goal.  
“Hindley scores, 10 points to Slytherin!”  
Marlene swore. Frank had gotten back on his broom and didn’t seem to be too badly hurt, though it looked like he might have a black eye in the morning.  
Avery had the Quaffle now but Samuel managed to unhand it, passing it to James. Marlene sped up towards the Slytherin end, he passed her the Quaffle over Black’s head and she sunk their second goal.  
“Yes!” She pumped the air and flew back towards the middle of the field. Meanwhile she tried to keep an eye on Rosie. The girl had proven to be quite talented during practices, but that wasn’t the same as an actual game. She was flying high above the other players, her head swivelling to catch a glimpse of the Snitch. They were lucky the weather was quite bright, it should be an easy catch.  
The game progressed to 30-60 for Gryffindor before there was any sign of the Snitch. Marlene was just passing the Quaffle to Samuel as she heard the crowds gasp. She quickly turned around on her broomstick to see Rosie diving towards the stands, Malfoy hot on her heels.  
“Gryffindor scores, 30-70. Lawson has spotted the snitch, Malfoy is close on her tail, she’s gaining. They’re drawing even - Lawson is reaching for - OOOH!”  
The whole stadium booed when Malfoy tackled Rosie. She’d had only one hand on her broomstick and rolled over so she was hanging underneath her broom. Marlene held her breath in terror, but Rosie managed to get back her grip and clamber back upright. The Snitch had been lost however.  
Their team went back into the game with new fervor. Rosie was their youngest player, and they all felt a certain protectiveness towards her. Anyone who messed with their Seeker would face the consequences. They managed another three goals before Black scored one for Slytherin, bringing the score to 40-100.  
Marlene was so focused on her own game that she didn’t notice the other players were all looking up. She tried to pass the Quaffle to James, but he wasn’t paying attention to her. She looked up to see Rosie draw close to a small golden glint, Malfoy hopelessly behind. The Quaffle momentarily forgotten, Marlene turned her broomstick towards the action, biting her lip in anticipation. The snitch tried to get away in a dive, but Rosie was too fast for it and snatched it out of the air triumphantly. She waved the struggling snitch above her head proudly, while the rest of the team converged on her.  
“Lawson catches the Golden Snitch, Gryffindor wins by 110 points!”  
“Well done, Rosie!” Marlene screamed, while pounding the young girl on the back.  
The other members of the team were singing a victory song as they made their way down, while the cheers that erupted from the Gryffindor stands drowned out the booing from the green-clad supporters.  
All Marlene’s worries melted away, as she looked at her team.  
“Well done, Captain.” James clapped her on the shoulder with a smile. His bad mood seemed forgotten for now.  
“Mum’s going to be so proud of you, Mar.” Samuel smiled. Marlene hugged her brother tight. They had their differences, but when it mattered she knew she could count on him.  
They made their way of the Pitch with their arms around each other.


	10. Achievement

James’ good humour didn’t last very long. Monday night saw the Marauders gathered in front of the fire in a nearly deserted Gryffindor common room, hunched over their plans. They had drawn out the Map, but couldn’t get the Location charm to stick. It only ever showed the people at the time the charm was cast.  
“This is never going to work.” Remus sighed, shoving his pile of parchment away from him.  
“Of course it will, Moony.” Sirius disagreed, pulling the parchments over to his side of the table. “We just have to think outside of the box!”  
“I feel like my brain is outside of the box.” James complained. “If only that stupid charm would work!”  
“Problem with Charms, boys?”  
Lily had just been passing their table when James had exclaimed. Charms was the only subject in which she had an edge on James and Sirius, a fact she liked to remind them of regularly.  
“Nothing you should concern yourself with, Lily dearest.” Sirius gave her a winning smile, that turned into a painful grimace when James kicked him in the shins.  
Remus gave Sirius a meaningful look.  
“What?” He whispered, rubbing his leg, shooting an annoyed glance at James.  
“She might actually be able to help you know.” Remus whispered back.  
“She is also standing right here and not deaf. Just so you know.” Lily glared.  
Remus smiled apologetically, before sending a questioning look around the table. Peter nodded enthusiastically, Sirius shrugged.  
“Sure. Prongs?” Four pairs of eyes were turned towards James, but the only ones he was interested in were bright green, eyebrows raised in question.  
He liked Lily a lot, but it was a big step from infatuation to trusting her with their secrets. Deciding to take a leap of faith, he nodded.  
Clearly pleased, Lily plopped herself down on the sofa.  
“Alright tell me about this Charms problem then.”  
“So we’re trying to make a… map of the castle.” Remus started.  
“But we want the map to show the changing stairs and people, in real-time.” Sirius added.  
“So we placed a Replication Charm on the castle and tried to link it up with a Location Charm, but that keeps freezing the map.” James went on to explain the different solutions they had already tried out fruitlessly, not even noticing Lily’s increasingly impressed look because he was too busy showing her all their different diagrams.  
“So then we tried to anchor the Location charm on an object in the castle, but that just shows us when that one object is being moved. And now we’re all out of ideas.” James concluded, falling back in his chair.  
“That is honestly genius.” Lily said, regarding him seriously for a moment. James’ hand flew to his hair, trying to hide his pleased smile behind a nonchalant manner.  
“The three of us helped out a little too, you know.” Sirius interrupted, which earned him another kick in the shins.  
“Ow, Prongs! What wrong is with you?”  
Ignoring the boys’ antics, Lily continued: “I think that maybe the reason it isn’t working is that you Replicated the castle on your Map, and then linked the Location Charm to the Map as well, while I think you should have linked it to the Replication Charm directly.”  
James started furiously writing on a scrap of parchment. “Keep talking, Evans, you might actually be making sense!”  
“If that doesn’t work, I suppose you could also try a Query charm.”  
“What’s a Query charm?” Remus asked.  
“It’s a searching spell.” Peter answered. When everyone looked at him in surprise, he explained: “My mom uses it a lot, because people keep losing things around the Ministry and expect her to find it.”  
“And how exactly is that going to help us make this map?” Sirius looked at Lily questioningly.  
“Well as Peter said, it helps you find things, but the way it does that is by sort of… scanning the surroundings.”  
The boys looked uncomprehendingly.  
“Scanning is this muggle thing where you’re basically sending out a signal and see if it… bounces off of something.” Lily laughed at their blank faces. “I’m not explaining this very well, but I think if you could place a Query charm on your map, that would continually send out a signal to its surroundings, it could make this idea work.”  
They were still looking at her in silence, so she assumed they didn’t agree. She was about to tell them to stuff it when Sirius said: “Will you please marry us, Lily Evans, you beautiful genius?”  
“What, all four of you?” She laughed awkwardly, decidedly not looking at James. “I’ll think about it.”  
She got up and said: “Why don’t you start by trying those two things, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll have another brainstorm.” She was halfway to the stairs when she turned around: “Do I want to know what you guys are going to use this map for?”  
“Probably not.” They gave her all wide grins.  
“Yeah, probably not.” She agreed and made her way up the stairs.  
“I swear Prongs, if you don’t marry that girl, I will.” Sirius joked. “She’s a damn genius.”  
“Yeah you’ve made that pretty clear, Padfoot.” James answered, looking sour. Before he could get another kick in the shins Sirius scooted over to Remus side of the sofa.  
“Haha, too slow, Prongs!” He said jubilantly, before getting hit in the other shin by Remus.  
“What was that for, you traitor?” Sirius exclaimed, turning to Remus with a look of mock hurt on his face. Remus was studiously looking at his book.  
“Loyalty.” He answered.

Later that night Remus and Sirius were in their dormitory, getting changed for bed, while James and Peter were still pouring over the Map.  
“I think you shouldn’t flirt with Lily like that.” Remus started, pushing aside Sirius’ stuff so he could sit on the end of his bed. “It’s not fair to Prongs, you know he’s been in love with that girl since fourth year.”  
“Flirting?” Sirius laughed in surprise. “I wasn’t flirting, it was just banter!”  
“”Will you marry me” is banter?” Remus asked with raised eyebrows.  
“Trust me Remus, if I was flirting with anyone, you would know.” Sirius sat down next to Remus, looking intently in his eyes. He hoped to convey all the unsaid things between them.  
“Well I think I’d prefer it if you weren’t flirting with anyone.” Remus looked out of their window, avoiding Sirius’ gaze. He was afraid of what the other boy might read in his own face.  
“Or not, apparently.” Sirius flopped down on his back, staring up at the curtained ceiling.  
Remus noticed the patch of bare skin that showed between Sirius’ shirt and pajama bottoms and quickly went back to looking out the window.  
Pulling in a deep breath, he asked: “What do you mean, or not?”  
“I mean that you obviously don’t realize when I’m flirting with _you_.” It was easier to say the words when they weren’t looking at each other. Sirius felt his matras move. When he turned his head to the side he found his face inches from Remus’.  
“I guess you’re just not that good at flirting then.” Remus breathed. His pupils were so large that his eyes seemed almost black, and Sirius thought he was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.  
“Maybe you should teach me?” He turned on his side so he was facing Remus completely.  
“Not sure I would be the best choice there.” Remus grinned, moving slightly closer.  
Sirius was breathing rapidly. It would take only an inch for their mouths to meet. He glanced from Remus' lips back to his dark eyes, feeling like he was pulled in by an inevitable force. He closed his eyes and leaned in.  
He then almost had a heart attack when the door to their dormitory flew open and James and Peter stormed in yelling: “It’s working! Padfoot, Moony, we made it work!”  
“Why are you on the floor, Moony?” Peter asked, only mildly interested. Remus had jumped so violently when the door had banged open that he had fallen off the bed.  
“He was uh… helping me look for my uh.. wand.” Sirius stammered. “I lost it.”  
“It’s right there, mate.” James pointed to his nightstand. “But who cares! The map is working!”  
James sat down on Sirius’ bed excitedly, spreading out the map where seconds before Remus had been, about to kiss him. Sirius tried to calm his breathing and clear his head while James prattled on. He couldn’t look at Remus, afraid the others would immediately _know_.  
“This is really great, Prongs.” He said, hoping he sounded enthusiastic rather than annoyed. He snuck a glance at Remus behind James’ back. Remus returned a playful smile that did _not_ help Sirius’ breathing. He tried very hard to concentrate on the map.  
It _was_ marvellous, it showed the stairs on the first floor moving, it showed Professor McGonagall walking towards her office, it showed the four of them in their dormitory. This would make sneaking around with Remus a whole lot harder, Sirius realised. If there _is_ going to be any sneaking around, Sirius corrected himself. Maybe in the morning Remus would realize what a terrible mistake they had been about to make.  
It took another hour of gushing and coming up with different passwords for their Marauder’s Map before James could be persuaded to go to bed. Even then he kept waking everyone up with exclamations along the lines of: “I vow to be a mischievous rascal!”  
“Shut up you big nerd!” Sirius eventually shouted, while throwing his pillow in James’ general direction.  
A muffled yell told him he had hit the mark. With a smile he finally managed to get some sleep.

The next day, Remus and Sirius were eager to get some time alone, but it seemed the entire universe conspired against them. They shared all their classes with James and Peter, and though Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures were perfect classes for working out new pranks, it wasn’t ideal for discussing matters of the heart. Luckily the other two were too engrossed by the Map to notice anything strange going on.  
When James finally left for his Quidditch Practice, Remus said: “I believe we were going to the library, weren’t we Sirius?”  
“Oh good, I’m coming too!” Peter chimed in, putting his things in his book bag.  
“Oh, erm… We were actually going to be working on a Potions assignment, so…” Remus tried.  
“That’s alright, you can just keep me company then.” Peter beamed. “I’ve got a paper for Muggle Studies due on Thursday, maybe you could give me some pointers. It’s about music installations.”  
Peter started making his way out. Remus grimaced. “Sure, Wormy, no problem.”  
Sirius shot him a wide grin. “Bad luck, Moony. Guess we’ll have to wait a little while longer.”  
He winked at Remus while moving over to the portrait hole after Peter. With a groan Remus followed them.  
By the time they made it back from the library, James had also gotten back from practice and immediately roped them in on the Map again.  
“Wormtail and I have decided on the passwords, and I’ve put the Transfiguration spell on it. When you’re done with it and you want it to wipe clean, you say _Mischief managed_.” He tapped the Map and the ink lines disappeared.  
“And if you want to use it again, you say _I solemnly swear that I am up to no good_.” He tapped his wand again and the Map rewrote itself. At the top of the Map it read in curly green letters:  


_Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs_  
_Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers_  
_are proud to present:_  
_THE MARAUDER’S MAP_

“That is some nice Transfiguring, I think McGonagall would be proud of you, Prongs. But by Merlin’s beard, you are such a dork!” Sirius laughed loudly. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good? How on earth do you come up with that shite!”  
“That was my idea actually!” Peter exclaimed indignantly.  
“Oh well, that explains it then, Wormtail.” Sirius punched him in the arm. “You’re both dorks.”  
“So what happens if you get the words wrong?” Remus asked James.  
“Aha! That brings us to the next great idea!” He exclaimed. “Tell them, Wormtail.”  
“We thought, if the Map gets into the wrong hands, we would want to dissuade the people who have it from using it.” Peter squeaked in excitement. “So if they tap it and do not use the exact words Prongs just said, they will get to speak to us directly.”  
“How?” Remus asked.  
“Like this.” James tapped the Map again. “Show yourself.”  
The ink started to appear again, but instead of the Map, it read:  
_Mr Moony presents his compliments, and begs you to use those abominable glasses to read something useful._  
_Mr Prongs disagrees with Mr Moony, the glasses add to your air of intelligence and stylishness._  
_Mr Padfoot would like to add that you are a nosy git, and should stay out of his business._  
_Mr Wormtail wishes you a good night, and suggests you tidy your hair, you unkempt rascal._  
Sirius looked at the Map with gleaming eyes.  
“Now we’re talking!” He crowed. “You should have led with the part where I get to insult people!”

Later that night, Sirius was lying awake in bed, listening to the slowing breaths of his friends. He was almost sure they were all asleep when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He got up, took the Map from James' bedside table and followed Remus downstairs.  
The common room was empty, the only light coming from the dying fire. The embers threw a golden glow across Remus’ face, making him momentarily look like a bronze statue. When he glanced up at Sirius, the look in his eyes was very human.  
Sirius quickly glanced at the Map to make sure there wasn’t anyone up, then strode over to where Remus was standing.  
“So…” He whispered, suddenly nervous. “Do you want to talk about yesterday?”  
“We could talk.” Remus smiled and moved closer. “Or we could not.”  
With a surge of bravery he didn’t know he possessed, Remus closed the distance between them and pressed his lips to Sirius’.  
With a small gasp Sirius pulled Remus closer, the kiss growing deeper when Remus knotted his hands in Sirius’ hair. With a sigh he pulled back so he could look at Sirius' face. His usually pale cheeks were flushed, the light of the fire reflecting in the blue of his eyes.  
“You are so beautiful.” Remus breathed, running a finger across Sirius' cheekbone.  
Sirius smiled shyly, a look Remus had never before seen on his face.  
“Let’s sit.” He said, pulling Remus along to a nearby sofa. They kept their fingers intertwined and eyes locked. The hours slipped by unnoticed as they talked, kissed, laughed.  
“You know I never dared to dream that you would want me.” Remus confessed, his head resting against Sirius’ chest.  
“What do you mean?” He asked in surprise.  
“Me being what I am.. I never thought anyone could want that. Let alone a Black.” Remus smiled up at him, but Sirius stiffened.  
_We’re Blacks. No one will ever let us forget it._ Regulus’ last words came back to him in a flash.  
“A Black?” Sirius asked, pushing himself away from Remus. “Is that what you think I am?”  
Remus’ face fell, catching on to the sudden change in the atmosphere.  
“I didn’t mean it like that, Sirius. Of course I know you’re nothing like your family.”  
“Yet you still thought I was enough like them to object to you being a werewolf? We’ve been friends for five years, Remus! Do you think I was lying all this time?”  
“No! Sirius, I didn’t mean it like that at all.” He tried to pull him back in, but Sirius stood up. The expression on his face hardened into a carefully blank stare.  
“Don’t do this, Sirius. Don’t push me away.”  
“I think I’ll go to bed now. Goodnight, Moony.”  
Remus saw him go with a sinking feeling. Everything had been perfect, better than he’d ever dreamed it would be. So how had he managed to ruin things so thoroughly in less than a minute?  
He walked over to where Sirius had left the Map. He stared at the dot that read Sirius Black for a long time before bitterly muttering: “Mischief managed.”


	11. Isolation

When Remus made it down for breakfast that morning, his friends were already there. Sirius noticed him coming over and quickly stood up.  
“I forgot my Arithmancy book upstairs. I’ll see you in class, Prongs.” He didn’t look at Remus when he passed him.  
Remus sat down beside James and stared at Sirius walking out of the Great Hall.  
“Does Padfoot seem a bit off to you?” James asked Remus.  
“How do you mean?” Remus pointedly kept his eyes on his empty bowl. Of all the days James could pick to be observant, of course it had to be today.  
“I made a joke earlier and he didn’t laugh.” James frowned. “He always at least pretends to find me funny.”  
“I think that’s got more to do with you not being funny, Prongs.” Peter said dryly.  
“I’m with Wormtail on this.” said Remus, clapping James on the back sympathetically.  
“Oi, stop ganging up on me!”  
Trying to avoid further discussion of Sirius’ mood, Remus quickly distracted James by asking him for the results of the last Holyhead Harpies match. It kept him talking for the rest of the meal.  
They said goodbye on the first floor, James heading towards Arithmancy, while Remus had Ancient Runes and Peter went off to Muggle Studies.  
Remus sat down in the back off the class, his desk just behind Lily’s and Marlene’s.  
“Hey, Remus. How’s the Map going?” Lily asked.  
“What Map?” Marlene interrupted.  
“Oh, it’s fine. Almost done I think.” Remus said distractedly. Thinking of the Map made him think of Sirius.  
“Alright, well let me know if you boys need any more help.” Lily said, giving him a searching look. He nodded, trying to act more like his normal self.  
“What Map?” Marlene asked Lily again.  
She explained it in whispers, while Professor Babbling started the class. Remus couldn’t keep his mind on the translations for more than a few minutes, which led to him being called out by his Professor twice, unable to formulate a passing answer to her question.  
It produced another look from Lily, which he pointedly ignored.  
He felt quite relieved when class was dismissed, though it also meant he had to go to History of Magic where he usually shared a desk with Sirius.  
When he left the classroom he saw Lily wave Marlene along and walk over to him.  
“Everything alright?” She asked as they started walking.  
“Yeah.” He shrugged noncommittally.  
“Because this is the first time in two years that I’ve ever heard you miss a translation. Let alone missing it twice.” Lily raised her eyebrow in question.  
“It’s Sirius.” Remus sighed. He figured he might as well tell someone. “We had a bit of a fight yesterday.”  
Lily motioned for him to continue.  
“I said something stupid, without thinking. I didn’t even really mean it as a bad thing, but Sirius can be quite… touchy when it comes to his family.”  
“Family will do that to you.” Lily acceded. “So just tell him you didn’t mean it.”  
“How come I didn’t think of that? Thanks, that’s brilliant advice!” Remus answered sarcastically.  
“No need to be cranky! I’m just trying to help.”  
They walked in silence for a moment.  
“What exactly did you say?”  
Remus blushed scarlet. “Nothing in particular.”  
Lily’s eyebrows flew up again. “_Nothing in particular_ led to you two fighting and you blushing this furiously?”  
“I suppose I might have implied that he was in some ways like his family.”  
“In what ways?”  
“In regards to people with lycanthropy.” Remus avoided Lily’s gaze. She stopped him with a hand on his arm.  
“You think he would mind about you, because of his family?” She frowned deeply.  
“W-What? No, I didn’t say anything about me…” Remus trailed off when Lily cocked her head in annoyance. “How long have you known?”  
“That you’re a werewolf? Ages. You disappear every full moon, and your friends call you _Moony_, for Merlin’s sake. You’re not exactly subtle.”  
Remus felt his mouth drop in surprise.  
“But that’s not the point. Of course Sirius would be upset if you said that to him! What were you thinking?”  
“I wasn’t thinking, alright! And I didn’t say that at all. But are we just going to skip over the fact that I’m a werewolf like it’s nothing?”  
“I don’t know, there’s not that much to say about it. Although I did read an article on this study they are doing in France, on a new potion that is supposed to heal lycanthropy.”  
Lily rifled through her bag. “I cut it out because I thought it was interesting. Maybe you'd like to read it?”  
Remus took the article from her and looked it over with a lump in his throat.  
“Thanks.”  
Lily put her arm around him and pulled him in.  
“Everything will be fine. Leave it to me.”  
Then she walked into the History of Magic classroom, where Sirius was just about to sit down next to James.  
“Sorry Potter, I’m borrowing this one for an hour.” Lily pulled Sirius over to the desk where she usually sat with Mary and motioned for her friend to share with Remus. Mary made a distressed face at her but moved over to Remus' desk anyway. Mary had had a bit of a crush on him last April when he’d helped her out when Mulciber and Avery had tried to use Dark Magic on her.  
“So, what’s all this about then?” Sirius asked with a frown. He noticed James was sending him dark brooding looks from across the room. He raised his shoulders to indicate that he couldn’t help this either.  
“Remus is upset.” Lily started, looking at Sirius hard.  
“That’s not my problem.” He answered defensively, crossing his arms in front of him.  
“He’s your friend!” Lily exclaimed, which got her an annoyed look from professor Binns, who had just floated through the blackboard. Sirius stared stubbornly at their professor, pretending to be interested in yet another goblin uprising.  
“Look, what he said was awful, but you know Remus. He didn’t mean it badly.” She lowered her voice to a whisper.  
Sirius' face paled. “What exactly did he tell you?”  
“That he didn’t think you’d like werewolves because of being a Black.”  
“You know…?” Sirius trailed off in horror.  
“Yeah, old news, we’re talking about you now.”  
“He said I wouldn’t _like_ a werewolf?” Sirius scoffed after a short pause.  
“Well, he probably meant _fall for_. But that’s just my opinion.”  
Sirius looked at Lily appraisingly. “Nothing gets past you, does it?”  
Lily shrugged. “Educated guess. You two aren’t that hard to read.”  
“Really?” Sirius laughed quietly. It had taken him over six months to make a move on Remus, and even then he hadn’t been entirely sure that the other boy reciprocated his feelings. “But it doesn’t matter. He clearly doesn’t think I’m any better than my parents, who’d gladly see him put to death.”  
Sirius blinked furiously, glaring at the blackboard. “You know it was an argument about Remus that got me kicked out of my house?”  
“I didn’t know that. Sirius, I’m sorry.”  
“My mother wanted me to cut all ties with him, and when I refused she cursed me.”  
Lily felt the blood drain from her face in shock. If they hadn’t been in class she would have put her arms around the boy, he looked so stricken.  
“And after all that, at the end of the day I’m just another Black.” He whispered bitterly.  
Lily grabbed his hand and squeezed it. He looked down at their hands in surprise.  
“You know that’s rubbish!” She whispered furiously. “And deep down, you also know that Remus never meant anything like that.”  
“He still said it.” Sirius said petulantly, but he had to admit she had a point.  
“And he’s been beating himself up about it all day. He gave a wrong answer in Ancient Runes. Twice.”  
“That doesn’t sound like our Moony.” Sirius admitted. “What do you suggest I do? Since you’re apparently our self-appointed marriage counsellor?”  
“Marriage? You do get a bit ahead of yourself don’t you?” She smiled teasingly.  
“Well I suppose I am a Black, and we are notorious for our thoughtless elopements.”  
“Well before you book a one way trip to Gretna Green, I do suggest you just try talking to him.”  
“Bah, boring.” Sirius grinned. He hadn’t wanted to discuss Remus, but he had to admit he did feel better for it.

When they were going down for lunch that noon, James told the others to go on ahead.  
“Padfoot.” He motioned to a deserted classroom and went in. Sirius followed curiously.  
“Are we going to prank Wormtail and Moony?” He asked, a scheming look entering his eyes.  
“What’s going on with you and Evans?” James turned to face Sirius, looking solemn.  
“What?” Sirius asked, taken aback.  
“You were cosying up with her on the train, you’re constantly flirting, and now you’re holding hands in class.” James listed. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”  
Sirius laughed incredulously. He had been so wrapped up in what was happening with Remus that he hadn’t even thought about what things might look like to James.  
“Prongs, mate.” He put his hand on James’ shoulder “I like Evans. You were right about her, she’s actually quite nice. And she’s ridiculously smart, I don’t think we’d have managed to finish the Map without her…”  
“So you _are_ dating her?” James asked, looking hurt. “Why didn’t you tell me?”  
“Don't be daft, Prongs!” Sirius exclaimed. “I like her, because she’s a great friend. But I’m not planning on taking her to Madam Puddifoot’s any time soon, if that’s what you’re worried about.”  
“You sure?” He didn’t seem convinced. “Because just a few days ago you were asking her to marry you.”  
“Yes, but then I’m also eloping to Gretna Green with Moony, so maybe you shouldn’t always take everything I say quite so seriously.”  
James sighed, and the scowl left his face.  
“So does that mean we’re good?” Sirius checked.  
James nodded, punching Sirius in the side. “Yeah, we’re good.”  
“Ow! Maybe you should just ask her out yourself because at this rate I’ll end up in the hospital wing by the end of the week! My shins are still bruised.”  
“Don’t be a baby, Padfoot.” James laughed, putting his arm around the other boy. “And I can’t ask her out, at least not until I’ve eliminated the Giant Squid.”  
They went down to lunch, a heavy weight lifted from James’ shoulders. With a happy sigh he sat down beside Remus.  
“So, Moony. I heard you and Padfoot are eloping to Gretna Green!”  
He had meant it as a joke, but both boys turned different shades of puce, and neither laughed.  
“What?” Remus spluttered.  
“Nothing!” Sirius said quickly, avoiding his eyes. “Shut up, Prongs.”  
“Alright…” James looked strangely from one to the other but decided to let it go.  
“So Padfoot, one more week until your birthday! What would you like us to do? You only turn seventeen once.”  
“We can carry you around on a throne all day. And compose ballads about your bravery.” Peter suggested. “Or Silence anyone who annoys you.”  
“All good suggestions.” Sirius nodded thoughtfully. “Or we could pretend it isn’t my birthday and just shut up about it.”  
“What?” James asked in surprise. “Padfoot, you love celebrating your birthday! And it’s your seventeenth, too!”  
“Just forget about it, alright.” He picked up his food and stood up. “We’re going to be late for Transfiguration. And you know how McGonagall hates tardiness.”  
The other three looked after him with expressions ranging from disbelief to outrage.

Later that night Sirius was sat brooding in an out-of-the-way stairwell in the North Tower. He sometimes came here to be alone, since the only people using these stairs were ghosts.  
So he was rather surprised when Peter suddenly dropped down on the stair next to him.  
“What’s got your knickers in a twist, Pads?” He asked quietly.  
“Nothing.” Sirius answered surly. “How did you find me, anyways?”  
“This.” Peter said, indicating the Marauder’s Map.   
Sirius looked annoyed, but didn’t make an answer. They sat in silence for a while.  
“I had a fight with Moony yesterday.” Sirius admitted eventually.  
“I noticed.” Peter nodded solemnly.  
“You did?” Sirius sounded surprised.  
“Well yesterday you two were constantly giving each other heart eyes behind Prongs’ back, and today you couldn’t stand to be in the same room with one another. I know you think I’m stupid, but I’m not blind.”  
“I don’t think you’re stupid.” Sirius answered automatically. “Well maybe a little.”  
The two boys grinned at each other.  
“So did you even need to work on your Muggle Studies assignment at all?”   
“Nah, I was just messing with you. You should’ve seen your faces: like taking away a child’s candy.” Peter laughed inwardly at the memory.  
“You sneaky rat, Wormtail!” Sirius cried. “Remind me to get you back for that.”  
“Won’t do.” He promised. “But what else is bothering you? What’s all this about not wanting to celebrate your birthday?”  
Sirius sighed heavily. He didn’t really know where to start. Though he had never fit in with his own family, birthdays had been the one time when they had all made an effort to get along. He remembered his eleventh birthday, the year before coming to Hogwarts when an eight-year old Regulus had tried to bake him a cake. The result had looked awful, and tasted even worse, but the intention had made Sirius feel loved for one of the few times in his childhood.   
Kindness had not been his parents' strong suit, but they had at least observed tradition. On his birthday they had given him gifts and congratulations, and on one occasion even a pat on the back. In a few days he would turn seventeen, the most important birthday in a wizard’s life. Normally his parents would gift him a watch, to see him through life, as well as his own key to the Gringotts vault. His parents and brother would write down their hopes and wishes for his adult life, ritually burning the parchments in the “Dragon’s Breath” - it was actually just an old skull decorated with dragon scales that had been passed down through generations of Black family members, but when he was younger Sirius had been sure an actual dragon would come out to breathe fortune upon his life.  
“Birthdays are supposed to be a family celebration.” He tried to explain. “The people who brought you into life, sending you further on your path. But I don’t have a family anymore. So it just doesn’t feel right.”  
“Well, that’s a load of toss, innit?” Peter laughed. “I mean, true, we didn’t “bring you into this life”, but do you really believe for a second that you don’t have a family?”  
Sirius continued to look gloomy, and Peter started to get annoyed.  
“I mean, who took care of you when you got hit by that Vomiting Spell in 1st year? Who made sure you never had to sit alone in Herbology, because we knew you were afraid of the plants? Who helped you get back at Thomas Lint when he turned all your robes pink? Who’s been stealing those pumpkin pastries from the kitchen every Halloween, because he knows you like them so much? Who took you in this summer when you had nowhere else to go?”  
“Well, I suppose, when you put it like that…”  
“I do put it like that! So please, no more moaning about not wanting to celebrate your birthday, because we already got you a present and it’s non-refundable.”  
Peter got up, dusting off his black robes.  
“I’ll leave you to your brooding for now. But don’t take too long, I know where you’re hiding.” He waved the Map with a smile and left.


	12. Going on Seventeen

The morning of Sirius’ birthday, James, Remus and Peter got up before dawn to smuggle in his present. It took them the good part of an hour, but eventually, they managed it. Mopping the sweat off their brows, they jumped on Sirius’ bed while casting Blaring Spells and Confetti Charms.  
Sirius jumped awake with a start, mowing his arms around him to cast off the potential threat.  
“Happy birthday, Padfoot! Time to start your day!”  
“It’s not even light yet, why are you guys up already?” Sirius grumbled, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. That moment he noticed something large at the foot of his bed. Thinking for a second that James had changed into stag-form, he looked to his left to ascertain that James was indeed sat next to him, grinning like an idiot.  
“Go on, take a look!” James urged excitedly.  
Sirius got up, while Peter turned on the lights. At the end of his bed stood an enormous black motorcycle. Sirius put out his hand to stroke the glorious machine, not sure what to say.  
“Do you like it?” Peter asked hopefully.  
“I...How on earth did you get this thing in here?”  
“Well first we Floo’ed it in through the fire-place downstairs, and then tried to Levitate it up the stairs, but it kept hitting the railings, so we ended up half-carrying it.”  
“But where did you Floo it in from?”  
“My mother’s cousin owns a garage, so we went to see him in August to buy it. We stored it in James’ shed until now.” Remus explained, trying to gauge Sirius’ reaction.  
“We thought you’d like it, since you had all those posters up in your room.” James explained. “But we can take it back if you don’t like it.”  
“Take it back?!” Sirius whipped his head around to look at James, his hand possessively on the motorcycle’s seat. “You will not lay a hand on her.”  
“Her?” Remus smirked, at the same time James said: “Oh good, because we can’t actually take it back.”  
They then proceeded to hand over their other gifts. Peter had bought a Muggle book called Motorcycling for Dummies, while Remus got him a mechanic toolset.  
“This one’s from me.” James handed him another package. “And this one’s from my parents.”  
Sirius took the small package with slightly trembling hands. He unwrapped it to find a small dark red box. Opening it up it had a beautiful gold pocket watch in it. It had an inscription on the back, reading _To the son of our hearts. With love, Euphemia and Fleamont._  
Sirius felt his chest constrict painfully as he looked down at the ornate letters.  
“Open up mine!” James prodded.  
With a deep breath Sirius put the watch aside and opened up James package. It was small, but quite heavy. When he opened it up he was a little confused.  
“What am I going to do with _two_ hand mirrors?”  
“Well I know how much you love to look at yourself, so now you can do it from two sides at once.” James said seriously.  
“Thanks?” Sirius sounded unsure.  
With a laugh James took one of the mirrors from Sirius and walked off.  
After a moment of silence, James’ face appeared in the mirror Sirius was holding.  
“Blimey, Padfoot! That’s a _really_ unflattering angle.”  
“What…?” Sirius held the mirror up higher. “How are you doing this?”  
“It’s a two-way mirror.” James explained. The door opened and he walked back in. “Just say my name in it, and I’ll see you in mine. And vice versa.”  
A smile spread across Sirius’ face. “Awesome! This is going to be so helpful if we want to prank someone.”  
“Or if we’ve got detention in separate classrooms.” James added. “Speaking of which, I’ve got detention with Slughorn this Friday.”  
“What did you do?” Peter asked.  
“He set the supply closet on fire.” Remus looked disapproving.  
“It was an accident! Could have happened to anyone who tried to mix Fiery Flowers with Exploding Eggshell.”  
“Naturally.” Remus pursed his lips to hold back a grin.  
“Anyway, moving on!” James exclaimed. “Time to go for breakfast or we’ll be late for classes, and we wouldn’t want Padfoot to get detention on his birthday.”  
They got dressed and went down to the common room. Remus paused at the dormitory door and turned to Sirius.  
“I got you a card.” He handed Sirius a brown envelope. “Maybe read it later, when I’m not around, alright?”  
He quickly made his way downstairs, leaving Sirius to ponder the card. He slipped it in his pocket and followed his friends downstairs.

At breakfast there was a minute of silence for the Muggle victims of a recent battle between Death Eaters and Aurors. Marlene’s father had been there, but had luckily escaped the melee unscathed.  
Mary’s neighbour had been reported among the Death Eaters, news that had shocked her exceedingly.  
The mood at the Gryffindor table was therefore quite subdued, and when the Marauders walked in decked in party hats and tinsel, they cut quite a figure. Sirius had been given a large paper crown that made him look positively regal. He looked happier than Lily had seen him in days.  
In Ancient Runes she poked Remus in the back so he’d turn around to her.  
“Sirius was looking a lot happier this morning. Did you guys make up?”  
“No. He’s been avoiding the subject.” He looked uncertain.  
Lily frowned. That wasn’t the answer she’d been expecting.  
“Well, I asked the Hufflepuff prefects to cover our shift tonight, since it’s Sirius’ birthday. I thought you’d want to spend some time with your friends, rather than patrolling dull corridors with me.”  
“Thanks, that’s really thoughtful.” Remus looked surprised.  
“Consider it my birthday gift.” Lily smiled at him and went back to the text they were supposed to be reading.  
In truth, she’d hadn’t asked the Hufflepuffs to cover at all, but she wanted Sirius to have his friends around. He’d been moping around all week, it was time for him to start smiling again.  
Not that there was all that much to smile about in the world. The number of people missing was rising every day. The fear of finding them dead with a Dark Mark set over their body was starting to equal the fear of finding them with a mask on, torturing Muggles. People were beginning to be paranoid about who they could trust, reporting their neighbours at the least sign of trouble. Meanwhile the Ministry did nothing but hand out platitudes and assuring everyone they had it under control.  
The SWAMP had handed over their petition to the Minister for Magic last month, but so far nothing had been done with it. More and more people were clamoring for harder actions, but so far the SWAMP tried to satisfy their need for justice with words.  
Lily tried to concentrate on her translation. Was _Feoh_ meant to denote wealth or wisdom in this context? She glanced over at Marlene’s, but saw that her friend was drawing quidditch diagrams instead.  
_Your head is going to change into a Quaffle one of these days._  
She pushed the note over to Marlene.  
_You’ll thank me when we finally win the Quidditch Cup._ Marlene wrote back. She’d drawn a small picture of herself holding the Cup underneath.  
Lily shook her head, laughing. Marlene had a one-track mind when it came to Quidditch.  
She had just decided to go with wealth, when Professor Babbling called for them to hand in their translations. With a resigned sigh, Lily handed her work in. It wasn’t finished, but at least she’d gotten farther than Marlene.  
They walked over to History of Magic, picking up Mary along the way. When they entered the class, the Marauders were notably absent.  
“Guess who asked me out in Muggle Studies this morning?” Mary whispered conspiratorially.  
“I have no idea. Do tell.” Lily whispered back. It was a bit hard to keep up with Mary’s love life, she changed crushes as often as hairstyles.  
“Elisabeth Moore!” She answered gleefully.  
“Is that the Hufflepuff Seeker?” Lily asked. Mary nodded happily. Lily tried to remember the face that went with the name. “Is it the one with the brown curls?”  
“No, you dummy! That’s Eliza _Murray_. Elisabeth Moore is the one with the long black hair, and the pretty dark eyes. And the smoking hot…” Her words were drowned out by a loud bang coming from the school grounds.  
All the students flew to the windows. There seemed to be a large, smoking crater in the middle of the lawn. Running away from the scene were a large deer and a black hound. Through the smoke they could just make out the outline of a human figure.  
“Is that Lupin?” A Ravenclaw asked suddenly. Lily leaned closer to the window and peered hard. It was in fact, Remus. He looked a bit dismayed, and Lily was wondering what on earth he thought he was doing. If he’d been planning some big gesture for Sirius, it would have perhaps been better if he’d done so when the latter was actually present.  
They saw Professor McGonagall make her way across the lawn in large angry strides, gesturing to Remus. He looked at her rather sheepishly. They couldn’t hear his explanation, but judging by McGonagall’s face it wasn’t wholly satisfactory.  
Professor Binns forced them all to sit down again, but nobody paid much attention to the rest of his class.  
“So, Elisabeth.” Lily brought them back to the point. “What did you tell her?”  
“That I would think about it.” Mary said with a prim smile. “Can’t make it to easy, now can I? But, by Merlin’s pants, she’s got that whole jock thing going on, you know how I love a Quidditch player.” She prattled on contentedly, not needing too much encouragement.  
When they left class, Marlene said: “I’m glad you’re going for a Hufflepuff this time, at least then you won’t be distracting _my_ team.”  
Mary stuck out her tongue. “Are you still blaming me for that time Gideon missed the Snitch last year? I was only waving!"  
“Maybe I should use you as my secret weapon, set you on our rival teams.” Marlene said, a cunning look on her face.  
“As long as the players are cute, I might be persuaded.” Mary laughed mischievously.  
“You two are the worst!” Lily scolded, but she was laughing as well.

When they entered the Transfigurations classroom that afternoon the Marauders were already assembled, quietly arguing among themselves. James and Sirius seemed to find something very amusing, while Remus was berating them under his breath. When they saw the other students come in, they ended their conversation and got out their books.  
“Good afternoon, Professor!” James beamed. “Did you know it’s Sirius’ birthday today?”  
“Yes, Mister Potter. I was informed of it this morning by Mister Lupin. When he decided to blow up half the school.”  
“I think you’ll find it was but a small part of the school grounds, Professor.” Sirius grinned.  
Remus hushed him with a chagrined look.  
“I’m sure you’ll tell me all about it in detention tomorrow.”  
“What? But I wasn’t even there!” Sirius exclaimed.  
“I’m sure you were in some way involved, Mister Black. You always are.” She gave him a strict look over the rim off her glasses. “I’ll be expecting the both off you tomorrow night at seven o’clock sharp.”  
Sirius looked incredulously after her, while James patted him on the back sympathetically. “Bad luck, Padfoot.”  
“Silence please, unless you wish to join them, Mister Potter.” Professor McGonagall called out. After everyone hushed down, she continued. “Today we will be starting on human Transfiguration.”  
They were all given a mirror and the instructions to change the colour of their eyebrows. James managed to change his eyebrows from black to purple in under ten minutes, which earned him ten points for Gryffindor.  
Sirius managed it not that long after, and Lily made it third.  
“Losing your edge there, Evans.” Sirius said laughingly.  
Lily retaliated by changing the colour of his whole head of hair to green.  
“Though I do admire your proficiency in Transfiguration, Miss Evans, I must ask you to refrain from using your skills on your fellow students. Unless you wish to join Mister Black and Mister Lupin in detention tomorrow night?”  
“No, Professor.” She said, trying not to laugh at Sirius’ indignant face. With regret, she returned Sirius’ hair to its natural colour.

Later that afternoon, Sirius finally found the time to open Remus’ card. The envelope had been burning a hole in his pocket all day, but he hadn’t wanted to open it with the others around.  
Inside was a handmade card, the front an intricate star pattern made up of swirling lines. Upon closer inspection, Sirius noticed that the lines were actually words, the outline of the star forming the word BLACK. From each letter, a number of words spiralled down into shapes. Turning the card in his hands Sirius read _Brave, Beautiful, Badass. Loyal, Lovable, Lustrous. Adventurous, Adorable, Amazing. Charismatic, Cute, Capable. Kind, Knowledgeable, Kissable._  
With a smile he opened up the card and read:

_Dearest Sirius,_

_When I said I didn’t expect a Black to like me, I only meant what I would have initially expected from someone coming from your family. _  
_I didn’t think you could ever interpret it the way you did - to be quite honest, I didn’t think at all, my mind was quite fuddled- can I blame you? - and I am sorry for it._  
_You are so much more than your family name, so much more than I could ever sum up in a single card. That is why I like you so much._

_Happy birthday._

_With love,_

_Remus_

_PS: I’m already regretting this cheesy card, so please burn this once you’ve read it?_

Sirius grinned down at the card like a lunatic. This was possibly the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for him. No way in hell was he ever going to burn this.  
“Can I borrow the Map for a minute?” He asked James, who was bent over his Defense Against the Dark Arts paper on Inferi.  
“Yeah, it’s in my bag.” He indicated his bag that had fallen down the sofa.  
“Thanks, mate.” Sirius unfolded the Map, his eyes searching for Remus’ dot.  
He located him in one of the Green Houses, probably checking up on their Venomous Tentacula. With a fond smile, he refolded the Map and made his way out of the castle.  
When he reached Green House Five, he indeed saw Remus talking to their plants.  
“Hey.” Remus jumped when he realised he wasn’t alone anymore.  
“I read your card.”  
“Oh.” Remus blushed scarlet.  
“So you think I am badass and kissable?” Sirius asked, walking over to Remus.  
“That one sounds a lot worse when you say it out loud.” Remus cringed. “But yeah, I think so. ”  
“And also charismatic and capable?” They were standing almost face to face now.  
“Hmm.” Remus nodded his consent.  
“And cute and knowledgeable?” Sirius rubbed his nose against Remus’.  
“Ugh, your nose is cold.” Sirius pulled back in dismay. “But yes, very cute and knowledgeable, and every other good thing you can think of.”  
Sirius smiled widely before closing the distance between them completely.  
It would have been a perfect moment if not for the Venomous Tentacula, which chose that very minute to sneak one of its vines down Remus’ collar.  
He jumped up violently, thrashing to remove the burning vine from his robes. Sirius had to hold on to one of the flower boxes, folded over with laughter. When he regained his composure he whacked the plant hard with his wand, and it withdrew sulkily.  
“That was quite possibly the best birthday gift of the day. Thanks, Tentacular.” He wiped his eyes on his robes.  
“Some boyfriend you are.” Remus muttered darkly, shrugging against the itch between his shoulder blades.  
“Boyfriend, huh?” Sirius’ eyes glittered with mirth. “I like the sound of that. Let’s get down to the common room, boyfriend. You’re invited to my birthday party.”  
Holding out his hand, he drew Remus along back to the castle.

Around eight o’clock, Lily had to leave on patrol duty. She had seen Sirius and Remus come through the portrait hole earlier, holding hands and grinning like idiots, so she was especially glad she’d told him to stay here tonight.  
She’d also seen Sirius put down the Map on a desk, and since she would be one man short for the job, she’d decided that she would take it along.  
Unfolding it when she had reached the ground floor, she noticed to her dismay that the parchment was empty. They hadn’t shown her that it could be wiped out.  
“Show me the map.” She tapped the parchment.  
Spiralling letters appeared on the Map, forming words.  
_Mr Moony presents his compliments and wishes to tell Ms Evans that she is far too nosy._  
_Mr Prongs agrees with Mr Moony, and moreover wishes to inform Ms Evans that though she is very pretty, she is definitely NOT better at Potions._  
_Mr Padfoot would like to add that he doubts you got permission to borrow this Map, shame on you!_  
_Mr Wormtail wishes you a good night, and reminds you to stay out of other people’s business, thank you very much._  
Lily looked at the Map with an incredulous grin. She was so impressed with the magical ingenuity of it that she didn’t even mind that the Map was trying to insult her.  
She did however want to use the Map tonight.  
“Am I right in assuming that this Map can only be activated with a password?”  
_Mr Moony commends your astuteness._  
_Mr Prongs admits you are rather quick._  
_Mr Padfoot always knew you were a genius._  
_Mr Wormtail agrees with all the above._  
Lily pondered the sort of password the boys would have picked. Going by their nicknames, probably something pompous.  
She decided to start walking while trying out different things.  
“Show me the way through every day.”  
_Not even close!_  
“I promise to use this Map for the Greater Good.”  
_Definitely worse._  
“I swear to use this Map for mischief and mayhem.”  
_Closer!_  
She tried another dozen of variations on the same theme, but to no avail. With an annoyed sigh, she stuffed it in her pocket. She’d just have to patrol the good old fashioned way then.  
It was definitely a lot more boring without Remus. Lily’s attention quickly dwindled. At one point she even thought she saw a motorbike through a window of one of the upper stairwells. Walking back to check, she couldn’t see anything, so she assumed she’d been hallucinating due to sheer boredom.  
It was almost ten when she decided to call it a night. With a bit of luck, she’d still be able to get some of Sirius’ birthday cake.  
She’d almost made it back to Gryffindor Tower when rounding a corner she ran into a group of Slytherins. She recognised Severus’ friends Avery and Mulciber.  
“Well, what do we have here?” Mulciber sneered. “All alone, little Mudblood?”  
With mean grins they got out their wands, advancing on Lily threateningly.


	13. Bare Bones

_Thursday, 4 November 1976_  
Thursday night Remus and Sirius made their way over to Professor McGonagall’s office for their detention. Remus slipped his hand into Sirius’ once they were out of the portrait hole, and both were contemplating their good fortune in having gotten an entire night for just the two of them, even if it was in detention.  
When they entered McGonagall’s office, however, they saw that someone else was already there.  
Lily sat with her arms crossed, a resigned look on her face. She waved half-heartedly at the boys coming in.  
“Mister Black, Mister Lupin, thank you for joining us.” Professor McGonagall motioned them to a desk, silently noting the fact that they were holding hands. “It’s a fine thing, having not just one, but _two_ of my Prefects in detention. I confess I expected more of you.” She gave Remus and Lily a pointed stare, making them both squirm slightly in their seats.  
“You will be helping me sort out these boxes-” She placed five crates full of rubbish on her desk. “And Transfigure each object back to its original state, so they can be used again for my next classes.”  
The three groaned loudly, but each picked up a crate and started the tedious job.  
After a few minutes, Professor McGonagall told them to carry on, she would be back to check in on them in an hour.  
Once she was out of earshot, Remus started: “So how come you’re in detention?”  
“I may have sent some people to the Hospital Wing with an acute case of boils yesterday.” Lily said, concentrating very hard on her pile of discarded matchboxes.  
“And how exactly did you end up doing that?” Sirius grinned widely.  
“I was almost finished patrolling when I ran into a group of… disorderlies.”  
“What do you mean, patrolling? You told me the Hufflepuffs were covering for us?” Remus asked sharply.  
“Oh yeah, I did say that.” Lily grinned at Remus. “ I lied. I figured you had better things to do last night.”  
“Admittedly, I did. But still, you shouldn’t do that again, Lily. There’s a reason we are paired.”  
“I can take care of myself, thank you very much.” She answered loftily. “Besides, I had taken your Map along to help me.”  
Both boys were suddenly very interested in the stack of needles they were sorting out.  
“Guess how much it helped me.”  
“Did it help you to re-evaluate taking other people’s things without asking?” Sirius asked.  
“It helped me re-evaluate my choice in friends.”  
Sirius grinned, but Remus looked shocked.  
“I’m joking! Really, I was quite impressed by the spell work. How did you manage to make it give answers specifically tailored to the person trying to open the Map?” Lily looked genuinely curious.  
“Oh, we didn’t, actually.” Remus admitted.  
“That was all James and Peter.” Sirius explained.  
“Really? I think I’ve been underestimating Peter.”  
“Just Peter?” Sirius asked slyly.  
“Well, maybe Potter as well.” Lily admitted lightly. “But don’t tell him I said that.”  
Sirius shared a meaningful glance with Remus.  
“So how do you actually open it?” When they didn’t immediately answer, she added: “Come one, I did help you guys out, didn’t I?”  
“Fine, you did. You have to say “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good” to open it, and “Mischief Managed” to close it again.” Sirius told her.  
“Oh, I was so close! I knew it had to be something ridiculous like that.” Lily laughed.  
“Yes, well, please don’t spread the word. I have a reputation to uphold.” said Sirius haughtily.  
He was spared Remus’ retort by a voice suddenly coming from his robe pocket.  
“Padfoot? Moony?”  
Sirius grappled for a second to extract the Two Way Mirror from his robes.  
“Hey Prongs.” He grinned. “Did you miss me already?”  
“Course I did!” The other boy grinned back. “Wormy and I just saw McGonagall in the Great Hall, do you need us to break you out of detention?”  
“And get us another detention?” Remus rested his chin on Sirius' shoulder to look in the mirror. “How about... no?”  
“We’re not even having _that_ bad a time. Look, we’ve got company.” Sirius turned the mirror sideways so James could see Lily looking dubiously at their interaction. “Bet you wish you had detention now, right?”  
Sirius relished the blush that spread across James’ face as he motioned for Sirius to shut up.  
“Guess we’ll just leave you to it then, and eat all this goodness by ourselves.”  
The image in the mirror moved to a table in the common room, covered in sweets and dessert. Obviously someone had been raiding the kitchen again.  
“Don’t you dare!” He growled. It was a long-standing tradition that the ones not in detention got treats for the ones that were. “At least save some of that chocolate cake for Moony.”  
“So I can eat all the pumpkin pie?” Peter’s face appeared in the mirror.  
“If you think you can live without your thievy little fingers.” Sirius threatened.  
“Always so touchy, Padfoot.” The boys in the Mirror laughed, and the reflection went blank.  
“Alright, we are so getting them back for that!” Sirius turned to Remus. “Ideas?”  
“Well, I’ve got an idea to get back at Prongs.” He threw a significant look at Lily.  
A slow smile spread across Sirius’ face.

“James?”  
He nearly fell off his chair, trying to turn around so quickly. He didn’t think he’d ever heard her call him by his first name.  
“Hey, Evans.” He tried for a suave smile. “What can I do for you?”  
“I was wondering if you would come and take a look at something. We were coming back from McGonagall’s office when we stumbled across something... weird.”  
“Weird?” James repeated.  
“It’s a bit hard to explain, you have to see it for yourself. Sirius and Remus stayed with it, but we think you might be able to help out. You have such a knack for Defence, after all.”  
Calling him by his first name and complimenting him? This smelled like a prank.  
“Are you trying to lure me into a trap, Evans?” He asked with his eyes narrowing in suspicion.  
“Honestly, never mind! I told them this was a waste of time.” Lily turned away with a frown.  
“Wait, wait! I’ll come.” James amended. “I didn’t mean to sound paranoid, but you would be too if you’d know the boys the way I do.”  
Lily raised her eyebrows. “And you think I’d help them with one of your stupid pranks?”  
“No, you’re right. You’re too nice for that.” He looked at her from the corner of his eyes as they made their way out of the common room. Far too nice, indeed.  
They walked in silence for a while when James realised this was the first time since the end of last year that they’d been alone together.  
“I’m sorry about what happened last year, with Snape.” He blurted out.  
Lily’s brow crumpled into a deep frown and he immediately regretted bringing it up.  
“I know it’s probably the last thing you want to talk about, especially with me, but I just want you to know.” He pushed on.  
“Alright.” She said, the frown not completely leaving her face.  
“I’m not proud of what I did, and there were reasons that I did it, but I never meant for any of it to end up hurting you.”  
She looked up at him in surprise. If she was honest with herself she’d assumed he’d acted the way he had out of maliciousness or boredom. She’d never stopped to consider there might have been other factors at play. Thinking back, she had to admit he had never been one to attack people without some sort of provocation.  
“What reasons?” She asked.  
“It doesn’t really matter anymore now.” He said uncomfortably. He didn’t want to reveal his friends’ secrets.  
Lily had stopped walking and he turned back to her. “It matters to me.”  
“I- There are some things that aren’t mine to tell. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I just can’t.”  
“Does it have to do with Remus?” Realisation hit her. Last year Severus had been obsessed with Remus and his secret, and there had been a rumour that he’d gotten himself in a situation that had required James Potter’s help. She hadn't put much stock in it then, but if he had tried to expose Remus in some way, that would explain a lot. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t made the connection before.  
“Why would you say that?” James' voice shot up, while he tried to avoid her gaze.  
“I know he’s a werewolf.” She said, taking a step closer. It suddenly seemed very important to know the truth. “Did Snape try to hurt him?”  
James looked flabbergasted. “You know he’s a werewolf?”  
“Honestly! You boys all act so surprised someone figured it out, when you insist on calling him Moony!” She said in exasperation.  
“We thought it was quite subtle.” James mumbled.  
Lily let out a surprised laugh, and James grinned at her shyly.  
“So am I right? Did Snape try something on Remus?” She said, serious again.  
With a heavy sigh, James explained what had happened with Sirius, Snape and Remus.  
Lily rummaged it over in her mind. This version of events threw a new light both on the boy stood before her now, and the one she’d considered her best friend.  
“I’m sorry.” She said, feeling awkward. “About the things I said to you that day. I was angry, and it made me very harsh. Knowing what I do now, I don’t suppose you deserved it.”  
“So, wait, you’re saying that I challenged the Giant Squid to a duel, for nothing?” James exclaimed in mock outrage, alleviating the tension. Lily laughed, grateful to move on to less serious things.  
“He is still quite a strong contender.” She joked. “Very nice arms.”  
They continued on, this time in a more companionable silence. Lily almost felt sorry for what was about to happen next.  
They rounded a corner and saw Remus and Sirius.  
"Finally! What took you so long?" Sirius asked Lily.  
"Nothing." She answered quickly, the light blush on her cheeks earning her a questioning look from Remus.  
"So what's this weird thing that I needed to see so badly?"  
"It's in there." Remus pointed to a half-opened broom closet.  
James walked over to the door and pulled it open with a quick tug. He sprang back, expecting something to come jumping out. With a frown, he stepped through the door.  
“I don’t see anything.”  
“Really? Look closer, there in the corner.” Remus pointed.  
James knelt down, searching for anything off.  
“I can’t see anything.” He concluded, putting his wand away. He turned back to his friends, only to be met by a gooey chocolate cake being smashed in his face by Sirius.  
“You sure?” Sirius snorted.  
“Really? A cake smash?” James wiped the batter off his face. “I expected so much better of you!” He licked some of the chocolate from his finger approvingly.  
“And you!” He turned on Lily. “Remind me to never buy your “I’m above pranking”-act again. Damn, you really had me.”  
“So did you save me any of the other chocolate cake?” Remus asked innocently once he’d regained his breath from laughing.  
“I’m already regretting it.” James threw him a grumpy look, trying to get chocolate out of his ears. Brooding over how to get back at his friends, he made his way back to Gryffindor tower, closely followed by the other three.  
In the common room they made their way over to the dessert table. Peter was sitting at it, complaining: “I turn my back for five seconds and you’ve all deserted me!”  
“An apt pun, though next time I’m taking you along as my human shield.” James promised.  
Lily was about to quietly leave them to it, when James called out.  
“Come back, Evans, you haven’t even had a piece of pie!”  
With a feeling that she didn’t wish to examine too closely, she turned back to the boys, smiling.  
“D’you have any apple pie?”  
“Ugh, I should have guessed you were an apple pie girl!” Peter made a disgusted face, but slid her a piece anyways.  
They sat around the table joking and laughing until the common room was quite deserted. Sirius looked from James to Lily with a feeling of satisfaction, his hand securely in Remus’.  
“I told you we’d make a Marauder of her yet.” He whispered in his boyfriend's ear.


	14. Let It Snow

November passed uneventfully into a bitingly cold December, and before they knew it the Christmas Holidays had arrived.  
The Marauders were all going home, while Lily had decided to stay at Hogwarts this year. Her parents would be visiting Petunia in London, and she didn’t feel it would be a good idea for her to come along. Hopefully, without her there, her parents would be able to patch things up a bit.  
Mary and Marlene had decided to stay in school as well, and on their first day off they went into Hogsmeade. With most of the students gone home, the little town was quiet and subdued. The girls quickly went from shop to shop quickly, avoiding the icy wind that bit at their cheeks and noses. Eventually they made their way into the Three Broomsticks, where they were greeted warmly by Rosmerta. The girl had been at Hogwarts herself until a few years ago, and was always good for a chat.  
“Have you heard?” She waved them over excitedly. “A Wyvern was spotted over London!”  
She smoothed out the paper she had lying by the bar, showing a picture of a massive shadow in the sky.  
“They’ll have quite a field day trying to explain that to the Muggles.” Mary commented, frowning down on the article.  
“Says here they told them _a balloon had come loose during a film shoot._” said Marlene. “I don’t know how they come up with these things, as if anyone will buy that!”  
“Did anyone get hurt?” Lily asked anxiously. “How did that Wyvern even get there?”  
“My dad told me some informants are saying that You-Know-Who is gathering all manner of creatures to his side. He’s sent people to the Giants, he’s been roping in Dragon Lords from the south and some say he’s even trying for the Dementors.”  
“So you think that he’s responsible for this?” Rosmerta looked uncertain.  
“It’s the first time in sixty-five years that a Wyvern has been spotted.” Marlene said sharply. “I hardly think it’s a coincidence.”  
Lily remained silent, thinking about her family in London. She was already regretting staying at Hogwarts. At least if she was with them, she could keep them safe.  
“Don’t worry, Lily. It just flew over the city. No one got hurt.” Mary said quietly, softly bumping her shoulder against Lily’s. Lily nodded gratefully, but couldn’t stop a worried frown from forming on her face.  
The girls sat down at a table near the fire, the warmth of the flames slowly thawing their frozen faces.  
“How are things with Elizabeth?” Lily asked, trying to distract herself from her gloomy thoughts.  
“Ooh, really good!” Mary threw herself into the conversation, perhaps with a little too much enthusiasm. The fact that she was joined almost equally by Marlene showed that both of them felt it was necessary to get Lily’s mind off London.  
An uncomfortable feeling of guilt kept nagging at the back of Lily’s mind, but she was grateful to her friends for trying.

After a few butterbeers the girls returned to the castle. Snow was beginning to fall softly, muting the world around them. With a sigh of relief, Mary pushed open the doors to the Great Hall. She’d just stepped inside when she turned to Lily and Marlene with a big grin.  
“Isn’t that your friend Alice?” She whispered to Lily.  
Lily looked past Mary to see two people in a passionate embrace, quite unaware of their audience. One of them was most definitely Alice.  
“More to the point, is that my Keeper?” Marlene exclaimed, not bothering to whisper.  
Alice and Frank sprang apart, looking caught. Since the three girls could no longer pass by unnoticed, they made their way over.  
“So, I guess this explains your sudden interest in our Quidditch try-outs?” Lily said to Alice.  
“I did also want to see my cousin play!” Alice said defensively, a blush colouring her cheeks.  
“I hope this won’t be distracting you when we have to play against Hufflepuff next month, Longbottom.” Marlene said severely.  
“Give it a rest, Marlee.” Mary playfully hit Marlene in the arm. “Can’t you think of something other than Quidditch for five seconds?”  
“I promise my relationship with Alice won’t interfere with Quidditch, Marlene.” Frank solemnly assured her before grinning. “Don’t fret.”  
Alice was looking at him with a happy smile, and Lily felt glad for her friend.  
“I’ll be expecting details next Thursday.” She muttered to Alice. Then feeling like the moment was rapidly becoming awkward, she added: “Alright, let’s leave these two alone!” and ushered Mary and Marlene towards the stairs. Alice threw her a grateful smile and slipped her hand in Frank’s.  
They were halfway up the second flight of stairs when they were approached by Severus Snape. He obviously looked uncomfortable, but still made his way over to them.  
“Can I talk to you?” He looked only at Lily, completely ignoring her friends.  
“What about?” She asked evenly. She did _not_ want to get sucked in by him again.  
His eyes shifted to her friends a few times.  
“We’ll just go on, see you in a minute?” Mary asked, trying to gauge her friend's reaction.  
Lily nodded and the two other girls moved on, throwing a worried glance back at her before passing around the corner.  
“So, what about?” Lily repeated shortly.  
“Can we go somewhere a bit more private?”  
“No, I think this will do.”  
Snape looked annoyed, but gave in.  
“I see you’ve been hanging around with Potter a lot.” He started, unable to keep the bitterness from seeping into his voice.  
“If that’s all you want to talk about, I’m not interested.” Lily started to walk up the stairs, annoyed that he would bother her for this.  
“Wait, that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about!” Snape shouted after her.  
Lily turned around, her arms crossed.  
“So say what you have to say, and leave me alone.”  
“Come on, Lily, why are you being like this?” He couldn’t keep the frustration out of his voice.  
“We’re not friends anymore, Severus, in case you forgot. And right now you’re wasting my time.”  
“_I’m_ wasting your time?” He asked angrily. “Yet you have no problem spending your time with _a werewolf_ and his friends?”  
“What do you think you’re doing, shouting that for everyone to hear? Who else have you been saying that to?” Lily whispered angrily, quickly checking that there were no eaves-droppers around.  
“People deserve to know what they’re in class with.” Snape hissed, his face whitening. “And you should stay away from them, that whole bunch. They’ll only drag you down with them.”  
“Unlike _you_, who’ll only see me banished from my world by your precious Death Eater gang?!” Lily replied hotly.  
“You’re not listening to me! It’s almost as if you _want_ me to join them!” He spat.  
“Don’t you _dare_ blame me for the path _you_ have chosen! And don’t you dare tell me who I’m allowed to be friends with!” Lily's cheeks flamed with anger.  
“Potter’s only being nice to you because he fancies you. Otherwise…”  
“Otherwise what?” Lily’s voice shook. “Otherwise he’d never think to be nice to a Mudblood? I think you’ve mistaken him for yourself, Severus.”  
“That was one time!” He roared. “ I called you that one time! Why do you have to make such a big deal out of it?”  
Lily shook her head pityingly. “You still don’t get it, do you?”  
"I love you!" He blurted out, a triumphant look in his eyes.  
"No. You really don't." She answered dispassionately.  
Snape opened his mouth to argue, but Lily silenced him with a sharp look.  
“Don’t ever talk to me again. Don’t talk to any of my friends. And if I find out that you’ve been telling people about Remus, I will make you pay for it.”  
Her voice had lowered in a threatening tone that surprised even herself. With a last withering look, she walked away from him.

_Sunday, 26 December 1976_

James Potter was woken up by an excited snuffling near his right ear. It took him a moment to register this and jump up, whacking away at the big black dog that was trying to stuff its tongue in his ear.  
“Merlin’s beard, Padfoot, don’t do that! I’m not Remus, I don’t appreciate you sticking your tongue in me!”  
With a wide grin, Sirius changed back to human form and dropped down on James’ bed.  
“It’s been an entire week since I’ve had the chance to stick my tongue in anything, give me a break Prongs.”  
“So is there a specific reason why you woke me up in this horrific manner?” James looked at Sirius accusingly.  
“Moony and Wormtail are coming over later, we’ve got to get ready!”  
“Is this the part where you try out every piece of clothing you own and I tell you which ones make your ass look fat?” James flopped down next to Sirius.  
“My ass looks great in everything, you dunce! But no, I was reading in that book your mum gave me yesterday, and there’s a spell in there that I think we can use to make my motorcycle fly!”  
Sirius looked at James excitedly, obviously waiting for a reaction.  
“And we have to do that on a Sunday morning because…?”  
“Because Moony and Wormtail are coming over!” Sirius repeated, annoyed that James wasn’t getting the point.  
“Right…” James hedged, his sleep-addled brain unable to come up with an explanation.  
“If we get it to work, I’ll ask them if they want to take a ride.” Sirius explained slowly, clearly thinking James was a bit dim. “And then make it fly!”  
A light bulb went on behind James’ eyes. “Yes!”  
The boys grinned at each other wickedly and jumped out of bed.

That afternoon the four Marauders were sat around the Potter’s living room, stuffed full with Christmas leftovers, when Sirius said: “How about we go out for a bit?”  
“Good idea!” James agreed. “How about we take a ride on your motorcycle, you’ve hardly had a chance to use it since we got it for you.”  
They donned scarves and gloves and went out to the shed. Sirius rode his machine out proudly, demanding another round of praise.  
“May I remind you that we are actually the ones that picked it?” Remus said with an amused smile.  
“You may not.” Sirius leaned over his bike to kiss him, eliciting groans and exclaims from the other two boys.  
“Can we start driving already?” James said impatiently.  
“Fine, who wants to go first?” Sirius grinned impishly.  
“I do!” Peter yelled excitedly, climbing on the back of the motorcycle with some effort.  
“Maybe you can fit three on there, what do you think, Padfoot?” James exchanged a twinkling look with Sirius.  
“Sure! If you hold on tight I’m certain we can squeeze you in, Moony.”  
Remus looked from James to Sirius with an inkling of suspicion.  
“I think I’ll sit this one out. Let Wormtail have some fun.” He said good-naturedly.  
They made their way to the gravel path that ran behind James' garden, next to a wide river.  
“Alright, hold on, Wormy. I don’t want to fish you out of the water.” Sirius said over his shoulder.  
They started out slowly, gaining speed along the long straight strip of road.  
“That motorcycle was a good idea, Prongs.” Remus said. Sirius was laughing out loud, joyous in a way that was far removed from his usual cool demeanour.  
“I’m glad you think so.” James answered, his eyes on the motorcycle, a devilish grin playing around the corners of his mouth.  
Remus looked back, to see that the boys were speeding towards the water at an alarming pace.  
“What is he doing?” He asked James worriedly.  
“I’m sure he’s got it under control, Moony.”  
They were almost at the water’s edge now, and the bike wasn’t slowing.  
“Sirius, stop!” Remus yelled, starting to run towards him. But too late, the front wheel dipped down towards the river, the two boys keeling over.  
Remus reflexively put his hands across his eyes to avoid seeing the ravage, but instead of hearing a massive splash he heard whoops of exhilarated laughter. Looking up towards where the motorcycle had been he saw only a snowy riverbank.  
“Up here, Moony!” Sirius’ voice came from above.  
Craning his neck, Remus saw the outline of the motorcycle above his head, Peter clinging onto a laughing Sirius for dear life, starting to go slightly green in the face. He looked behind him and saw James doubled over with laughter, wheezing out:  
“Your face Moony, priceless!”  
“You bloody bastards!” Remus yelled at them, but he couldn’t keep from smiling back at Sirius. “I thought you were going to drown!”  
Sirius landed the bike near Remus and helped Peter off. The chubby boy immediately ran over to a nearby bush and was violently sick in it.  
“I do love it when you’re worried about me.” Sirius grinned while he sauntered over to Remus.  
“I wasn’t worried about you.” Remus corrected. “I just didn’t want to have to explain to my uncle how you broke his motorcycle in under two months.”  
“Sure.” Sirius smiled and leaned in for a kiss.  
“Come on guys, we have a rule about the kissing!” James yelled from Peter’s side. “You guys are worse than my parents!”  
Remus ostentatiously put his gloved hand in Sirius’ back pocket. “Alright then, no more kissing.”


	15. Appearances

The first week of the new year a note was posted in the common rooms, announcing that sixth years could enrol in Apparition classes, starting on the first Saturday of February. This lead to quite a flurry of excitement, and people working out when they would be able to take their test. The first exam date was set for the second weekend of May, leading everyone who’s birthday came later to complain loudly.  
“It’s not fair! If only they had done the exam a month later, I would have been able to enter!” Peter complained.  
“Well, I still wouldn’t have been able to because my birthday’s in August.” Mary argued. “So it still wouldn’t have been fair.”  
“Why is it so important whether you’re even seventeen?” Samuel added. He wasn’t actually a sixth year, but the idea his sister would get to learn Apparition while he still had to wait an entire year stung a bit.  
“Because we wouldn’t want you to Splinch your poor underaged brain.” Marlene retorted. She was rewarded with a stuck-out tongue from Samuel and a giggle from Mary.  
“It’s not such a big deal.” Lily tried to cheer them up. “You’ll still get to learn it, even if you can’t take the test until October.”  
“Easy for you to say, you’re turning seventeen at the end of the month.” Peter said darkly.  
“Don’t be like that, Wormy!” James pushed him playfully. “After we’ve all taken our test, we’ll take you by side-along Apparition.”  
This didn’t really seem to cheer Peter up at all, because his frown deepened even further.  
“You first have to pass your test. Don’t make promises you can’t keep, James.” Lily joked.  
“Oh, you want to bet which of us can Apparate first?” He answered with a glint in his eyes.  
“Deal.”

The excitement over Apparition was soon dampened by the news of a train being derailed by Death Eaters, causing it to hit a viaduct and killing ninety people, both muggles and wizards, in the process. The Daily Prophet ran the story for days, identifying new victims every day.  
This new tragedy, following so closely on the Wyvern incident and the increasing number of missing wizards and witches, led to an outrage among the community. The SWAMP, whose petition had been largely ignored by the Ministry, had decided to organise a march in London the first weekend of February. Among the Hogwarts students there had been a great willingness to join, until the Heads of Houses had announced that only those students who were of age would be allowed to leave the school.  
“If they think I’m letting you go alone, they have lost their bloody minds!” James told Sirius.  
“I’m sure we can find a way to get you on that train.” Sirius grinned.  
“You’re not leaving me behind!” Remus protested. “There should be at least one sensible person present.”  
The last week of January saw a spectacular increase in birthday celebrations by people hoping to fool the teachers.  
“Really, Miss Evans? I had expected better of you.” Professor McGonagall pursed her lips when she walked into the common room and saw Lily wearing a paper crown and blowing out candles on a cake. “No one under the age of seventeen will be allowed to leave the school grounds next week!” She called out to all the students. She hung up a notice on the board and left again, leaving Lily to stare after her in shock.  
“It actually _is_ my birthday!” She called out after McGonagall had gone through the portrait hole.  
“There’s no need to lie, Lily, she’s already seen through you.” James grinned, stuffing a bite of cake in his mouth. Lily narrowed her eyes at him.  
“I’m joking! Happy birthday, thanks for the cake.” He ran off before she could smack him.

_Saturday, 5 February 1977_

The day of their first Apparition lesson arrived with a blue sunny sky and surprisingly mild temperatures for midwinter. The snow had melted off the ground, and when they made their way out to the front of the castle a few students even removed their coats.  
Almost the entire sixth year, and a few seventh years, were gathered outside. They were greeted by their Heads of Houses, alongside a small, waifish-looking witch, who introduced herself as Prudence Highwater.  
James rubbed his hands together in excitement.  
“You ready for this, Evans?”  
“Prepare to be annihilated, Potter.” Lily grinned.  
They were told to spread out across the lawn, so they would have a space of 5 feet across. Lily turned around to check her spot, and saw Marlene look wistfully towards the Quidditch Pitch. Saturday mornings they usually had training.  
“Don’t pout Marlee, you already got to fly yesterday!” Lily whispered.  
“I know, but still. Look at these weather conditions!” She sighed deeply.  
“No talking, please, Miss McKinnon!”  
They were all given a hoop, and then the witch at the front started to explain the three D’s.  
“You must focus first on your _Destination_, then muster the _Determination_ to get there, and finally move with _Deliberation_.” She twirled gracefully on the spot, disappeared, and reappeared a second later inside a hoop across the lawn.  
A few people clapped, while everyone else looked at each other uncertainly.  
“So please take a step back from your hoops - and concentrate on your Destination.”  
Lily stepped back and tried her hardest to concentrate on the inside of her hoop. She tried to visualise every blade of grass, the air inside it, the earth beneath… It would have been a lot easier if Potter hadn’t been constantly looking over his shoulder, wiggling his eyebrows at her.  
“Now moister your Determination to get to your Destination.”  
Lily tried to ignore James and garner some motivation to move into the circle of grass two feet away.  
“And then move with Deliberation!” Miss Highwater called out.  
Everyone turned on their spot, many losing their balance on the wet grass, but not much happened.  
“Alright, let’s try that again!”  
They kept repeating the same steps, as though they were doing some sort of abstract choreography. If it wasn’t for her bet with James, Lily would have called it a day twenty minutes ago. She felt rather foolish, staring and twirling around this hoop.  
She was peering hard into her hoop, when she heard a commotion from the line before her.  
It seemed Peter Pettigrew had managed to Apparate into his hoop, but had left behind part of his finger. He was clutching his hand frightfully while Professor McGonagall moved over to fix him. Immediately after, he tried again and succeeded in the first successful Apparition of their year.  
“Very good, Mister Pettigrew.” Professor McGonagall said in astonishment. “Ten points to Gryffindor.”  
James looked back at Lily in dismay. “Well, that was unexpected.”  
Lily looked over at Peter, who looked as surprised as anyone else. “Yes, it is. I guess neither of us wins then.”  
“We can still see which one of us manages it first.” James hedged. He was just about to ask Peter for advice when Miss Highwater called an end to their first lesson.  
“Well, there goes my plan of Apparating into London tomorrow, I guess.”  
“I suppose you’ll just have to sit this one out with the rest of the little kids.” Marlene grinned at James.  
“May I remind you that this little kid won you the game against Hufflepuff last week, McKinnon?” James replied indignantly.  
“There’s no need to make a fuss, Jimmy. Do you want some warm milk to go with your cookie later?” Lily smiled sweetly.  
“Alright, you two, break it up!” Sirius interrupted before they could start bickering again. “I think if there’s one person who deserves a cookie, it’s our Wormtail. I couldn’t have done it better myself, mate.”  
“You didn’t.” Remus reminded him.  
“Congratulations, Peter. That was really cool.” Said Mary, who had walked over to them. Peter blushed furiously, not used to being complimented by anyone.  
“Really cool, but seriously, how did you do it?” James asked in earnest. He wasn’t used to being slower than Peter on anything, and he did not like it one bit.  
Peter mumbled something unintelligible, not wanting to explain that Apparating had a lot of similarities to changing into your Animagus form in front of the girls.  
“Alright, fine, don’t tell us then.”  
They started to make their way back towards the castle, discussing the lesson excitedly.  
“So have you heard anything from your parents about tomorrow?” Lily asked Marlene, falling back behind the others.  
“They’re expecting about five hundred people. They’ve asked the Department of Magical Law-Enforcement to post Aurors, in order to keep everything peaceful but the head of the department doesn’t believe that’ll be necessary.”  
“What?” Lily asked outraged. “So there won’t be any Aurors at all?”  
“Well, there’ll be quite a few, but they’ll all be off duty.” Marlene looked troubled. “My mum thinks it’s because they don’t want to have to pay them on a Sunday. They’ve been making a lot of cuts recently.”  
“But surely this is important enough to make an exception?” Lily had been nervous about the march all week, but this news made her stomach crawl.  
The girls made their way inside in silence, each absorbed by her own thoughts.

_Sunday, 6 February 2019_

On Sunday morning there was quite a hubbub in the Great Hall, with people swarming about trying to get past Filch’s check-out point. He’d set up a cord to block people from coming near the doors, but as he was checking whether the people in line were over-age, many others were trying to make their way past. It got to the point where Professor McGonagall transfigured the door knocker into a life-size roaring lion, chasing after people who slipped out unsanctioned. After that people stayed in line and those under-age were sent away muttering darkly.  
Sirius was let through the line, and James, Remus and Peter waved at him sadly.  
“Make us proud, Padfoot!” James yelled after him, adopting an air of disappointed hopelessness.  
Marlene and Lily, who were still queuing, eyed the three boys suspiciously. It was very uncharacteristic for them to be giving up so easily. If Lily was honest with herself, she was a little disappointed in them. She had thought they would find this important enough to try a little harder.  
“Name?”  
“Marlene McKinnon.”  
Filch let his finger slide down his list of names.  
“Alright.” He motioned Marlene through, obviously disappointed at not being able to send her back.  
“Name?”  
“Lily Evans.”  
“Move along.” He pointed Lily towards the doors, where she joined Marlene. They walked towards the Hogsmeade train station in relative silence, feeling slightly nervous about what they were about to do.  
Marlene and Lily boarded the train, looking for a compartment to sit down in. The first one they walked past had Alice and Frank in it, but from the way they were looking at each other, they didn’t exactly need any company.  
In the next one down they saw Sirius was sitting all alone.  
“Can we join you?” Lily asked, sliding the doors open.  
“Er.. Sure, yeah.” Sirius looked around at the empty seats in alarm. “How about, you sit… over there.” He pointed to the corner of the berth opposite him.  
“Alright?” Marlene side-eyed him suspiciously. She sat down cautiously but immediately jumped back up. “Bloody hell, is that a rat?!”  
She pointed at a furry little long-tailed body, that looked indeed very much like a rat.  
“Jesus Christ!” Lily burst out, scrambling on top of the empty berth next to her. At least she had thought it was empty, but she found that her feet met not the wood and leather of a seat, but rather something soft and squishy on which it was impossible to keep one's balance. Lily toppled over with a soft exclaim, before being caught by a disembodied hand.  
Seeing this, Marlene screamed loudly, and dropped her bag on top of the brown rat, causing it to make its escape out of the ajar compartment door.  
“Calm down!” Sirius yelled at her loudly. Lily had regained her footing, looking at the hand mistified. She ran her other hand up to the wrist and finding that there was, in fact, an arm attached to it ran her hand further up. She felt a soft material brush her hand, and taking hold of it, pulled a suddenly visible Invisibility Cloak off of Remus and James, the latter looking a little flushed. With a start, Lily realised she was still holding James’ hand and dropped it immediately.  
The noise died down quite suddenly, leaving the five people to look at each other sheepishly.  
“So…” Lily started, trying to avoid looking at James. “You managed to get on the train after all.”  
“Obviously.” Remus answered dryly, rubbing his leg where Lily had stood on it.  
“And you didn’t bring Peter?”  
“Oh he’ll be here any second now, I’m sure.” Sirius reassured her.  
At that very moment, a slightly dishevelled looking Peter Pettigrew walked in.  
Marlene looked from the Invisibility Cloak back to Peter.  
“How did you manage to get on here, if not with that cloak?”  
Peter fumbled for an explanation, before being saved from further embarrassment by James saying: “Don’t underestimate our Wormtail, he’s an unexpected genius!”  
“You don’t say! The first one to Disapparate, getting on this train,... You’ve been selling yourself short all these years.”  
Marlene regarded Peter with a calculating look, causing him to stare down at his feet. She sat down next to Lily, leaving only the spot in the corner free. When Peter made to sit there, she warned: “There’s rats in that spot.”  
Neither of the girls understood why this caused the boys to erupt in hysterics, but with a significant look at each other, they decided to ignore it.  
With a jolt the train moved forward, taking them to London.


	16. Ignite

“No Pureblood Supremacy in our society!”  
“All magical blood is Pure!”  
“Take off their masks!”  
People had banners and were shouting different slogans over each other. More than 800 people had shown up so far, almost twice the number that had been expected, and the mass of people was quite overwhelming in the small streets of London. They had left off from Kings Cross’ and were now almost at the Ministry. They had gotten a few weird looks from Muggles, but mostly they were ignored. Marlene’s father had cast a Deflection and Confundus Charms, so most Muggle eyes just passed them by, and if they did happen to look twice, their mind would fill in the blanks as a demonstration for workers’ rights.  
The Hogwarts students were walking near the front of the march and were among the first to notice something was wrong.  
Until now they’d passed by people regularly, but ahead of them the streets were deserted. The people in front of them started to slow down, some taking out their wands.  
“I’m going to check with my parents, see what’s going on.” Marlene said, and made her way to the front, elbowing people aside.  
Lily had just seen Marlene reach her mother’s side when the mass of people stopped abruptly, causing a lot of stumbling and running into each other.  
“What…?” Alice started, steadying herself against Frank, but she didn’t finish her question.  
Across the street from them a large group of hooded and masked people had become visible where the street had at first seemed abandoned.  
Everyone around them grabbed for their wands, some people Disapparating on the spot, others trying to escape through a side alley. Lily saw more Death Eaters emerge from every side. They were effectively surrounded.  
An unmasked man made his way to the front of the opposing group, and a terrified whisper ran through the remaining marchers. Most of them had never seen his face, only heard it described in hushed whispers and rumours.  
“I heard you were looking for me?” Lord Voldemort said evenly. His eyes were red and inhuman as they stared into the crowd.  
People everywhere started panicking, no longer trying to stand their ground, most of them tried to get away.  
“There’s nowhere to go.” James said quietly to his friends, looking around frantically for a safe place. “Stay close.”  
They all nodded, trying not to let on the paralysing fear that gripped them. They formed a loose circle, trying to cover each other’s backs. James positioned himself in front of Peter, while Alice and Frank stood shoulder to shoulder, looking fiercely into the oncoming horde of Death Eaters.  
Lily desperately tried to catch a glimpse of Marlene, but she was caught up in the frenzy somewhere. She didn’t have time to look for her friend as the first curses were being cast around them.  
Lily cast a Protection Charm around her friends, hoping to deflect random curses, but it was almost immediately undone by a large Death Eater coming their way.  
Lily let her instincts take over, her wand flying around faster than it had ever done before. She forced herself not to think of her opponents as people, as fathers or mothers, siblings or friends, because she knew that if she hesitated for even a second it could cost her friends’ lives.  
Their group drifted apart. Frank and Alice were battling three Death Eaters at once, while Sirius and Remus advanced on a tall wizard whose mask had slipped off. With a jolt, Lily recognised Mary’s neighbour. She had talked to him only last summer, and he had offered them both biscuits.  
With a jerk of her head she concentrated on the person advancing on her, she couldn’t tell if they were a wizard or a witch. She tried to Stun them, but this person was a lot faster than the previous Death Eater. Lily had to duck to avoid getting hit by a counter-curse, which caused her next spell to miss the target completely. She did accidentally hit one of the Death Eaters that was fighting Alice and Frank, which gave them the upper hand over the other two.  
Lily quickly cast a Shield Charm to deflect the blue flash that came at her.  
Time became meaningless as the world sank into a monotone of casting and deflecting spells. At one point Lily thought she heard someone shout her name, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but staying alive, and keeping her friends alive. She tried to make her way back to them but kept being pushed back.  
Her back hit a wall and she nearly lost her balance. Two Death Eaters advanced on her, the hate in their eyes visible through the holes in their masks. Lily wondered if they somehow knew she wasn’t Pureblood, or if they just hated everyone who didn’t agree with them.  
She straightened her back, determined not to go out without a fight, when they both fell down in quick succession, a red glow behind their backs.  
“Alright, Evans?” James asked, his face grim, the ever-present grin wiped from it.  
Lily nodded gratefully, never more happy to see him. She moved over to stand by his side to see another couple of Death Eaters moving over towards them.  
They fought surprisingly well together, one of them casting curses, while the other defended them from incoming spells. The two of them made their way back towards the middle of the street, looking around for their friends.  
A new masked face made their way towards them, ferociously cutting through the other marchers. He fought well, but still wasn’t a match for James and Lily together.  
They had almost defeated him when his right sleeve fell back, revealing a crescent-shaped scar on his lower arm.  
With a shock Lily remembered a hot summer day when she was eleven.  
_They had climbed over a garden wall to get to a great apple tree, but hadn’t known the farmer had a large dog. They had made their way out quickly, but not before the dog had bitten Severus hard in his right arm, causing him to drop the apple. Her mother had put salve and a bandage on it, promising him that girls would love his scar when he was older._  
Her moment of hesitation cost her dearly. She had been in the midst of casting a protection charm but had frozen mid-motion, a fact Severus used to point his wand at James. The light hit him right in the chest, ripping bloody cuts across his body. With a painful cry James fell to his knees. Severus turned away, leaving Lily unharmed.  
She ran to James’ side, taking stock of his injuries. The spell was still continuing to cut him up, the slashes now moving up his arms and legs. Lily called out for help, tears streaming down her face as she tried to stop the bleeding. She looked around, but all of their friends were fighting for their lives. She noticed another Death Eater coming her way and cast the strongest Protection Charm she could muster. She layered another two on top of it and turned back to James.  
“James?” His face had turned white and still. “James!”  
Panicking, she tried every healing spell she’d ever read about. She managed to close the existing slashes, but new ones kept appearing. With a sob she tried to remember her Apparition lesson from yesterday. She grabbed hold of James’ arm tightly, but nothing happened. She couldn’t do it. He was going to bleed out on this street, and it was all her fault.

“I’m going to check with my parents, see what’s going on,” Marlene said to Lily, and made her way towards the front of the march where her parents and older brother were. She had to elbow aside quite a few people, some of them calling after her indignantly.  
Marlene reached her mother’s side. “Why is everyone slowing down?”  
Her mother didn't answer and stopped altogether, throwing out an arm to keep her back. She looked up at the empty street and saw that it was no longer empty. Masks and black robes were visible on every corner of the street, and filling every yard in front of them.  
Marlene drew in a sharp breath, immediately reaching for her wand. She could hear the people behind her doing the same, a ripple running all the way to the back of the crowd.  
Marlene looked around and saw even more Death Eaters coming from the side streets.  
Her mother's gasp made her look back. A pale thin man without a mask had made his way to the front of the group facing them.  
Marlene had heard her father talk about You-Know-Who, but he wasn’t what she had imagined. His face was white and sharp, his eyes a disturbing red, but he was still just a man.  
“I heard you were looking for me?” His voice sounded thin, like a hissed whisper, but it still seemed to reach across the space between them as if he was speaking right next to Marlene’s ear. A shiver ran down her spine and she held her wand a little tighter.  
“Daniel, take Lena out of here.” Her mother told her brother, pushing Marlene towards him.  
“No, I’m not leaving.” She protested. “My friends are still here!”  
But Daniel grabbed her arm firmly and with a jolt they Disapparated out of there.  
They turned up outside of the Leaky Cauldron, and her brother pulled her inside quickly.  
She pulled her arm from his grip furiously.  
“Take us back, right now!”  
“I can’t, Lena, didn’t you see what was going on there? It’s going to be a slaughter!” His eyes looked wild with worry.  
“We can’t just leave them to die!”  
Her brother pushed his hair away from his face, thinking hard.  
“Tom, can you send out Fire-messages to the Aurors?” He turned towards the bartender who had watched them come in with alarm. “There's a fight going on at the Ministry. You-Know-Who showed up, it’s a disaster.”  
He had tried to keep his voice down, but still a repeated “You-Know-Who?” went through the pub.  
“I will do my best, but most of the Aurors who frequent my place were planning on going to that march themselves.” Tom said, the misgiving clear on his face.  
“Please, just try.” Marlene pleaded. Tom went through a door behind the bar, leaving them to wait.  
“We’ve done all we can here, Danny, we have to go back.” Marlene pushed, looking at her brother fiercely.  
“I can’t, mother will never forgive me if anything happens to you.”  
“_I_ will never forgive you if anything happens to my friends!” She cried out. Her brother paled, but didn’t budge.  
“You don’t mean that.” He said quietly.  
“I do! How will you ever become an Auror if you’re too afraid to fight?” She knew it was a low blow, but she was desperate to get back to her friends.  
Daniel frowned down at his hands before looking back at her.  
“Fine.” He said. “But you are staying right by my side the whole time, and you do exactly as I say, understood?”  
“Yes!” Marlene jumped up and hugged her brother hard. “Let’s go!”  
She threw one look back at the bar, but Tom hadn’t come back out. They’d just have to trust that he would alert help.  
They Apparated back into the midst of a battlefield. Everywhere around them people were fighting. Some were lying on the ground, whether dead or stunned, Marlene couldn’t tell. The smell of blood and fear pervaded the air and choked her, and for a second she wanted to reach out to her brother and ask him to _please take her back, take her away, anywhere but here_.  
But he had already thrown himself into the battle, dodging curses as he went, and she had no other option but to follow. She tried to stay close to her him while searching for her friends. At one point she thought she saw a flash of red hair, but by the time she could look again, it was gone. Her brother was a magnificent fighter, but there was also an edge of recklessness to the way he threw himself into the path of more and more Death Eaters, as if to prove her earlier comment wrong.  
“Be careful, Danny!” She called out to him, as a witch who’s mask had been ripped off advanced on him from behind. He turned around just at the last moment and stunned her.  
“Thanks, sis.” He grinned. With a flash of green, his grin died along with him.  
Marlene ran towards him, her scream swallowed up by the din of the battle going on around her. She reached him just before his body hit the ground.  
“Danny? Danny?!” She held his face between her hands, remembering when she was five and had dared Daniel to fly their mother’s broomstick. He had fallen off and lost consciousness for a minute, causing Marlene to call out for their mother in a panic. She recalled how his face had looked and how she’d been sure he was dead.  
Real death looked very different. His face turned waxen and his body turned cold beneath her shaking hands as Marlene held her brother, unaware and uncaring of the fight going on around her, 

“I heard you were looking for me?” The cold voice seemed to reach inside Sirius and twist his guts. It reminded him of his mother in its careless threat.  
He moved closer to Remus, catching hold of his hand. Remus gripped tight, maybe needing the same reassurance as him.  
“There’s nowhere to go.” James said quietly, looking worried. “Stay close.”  
Sirius let go of Remus’ hand so they had both hands free to hold their wand if necessary. They stayed shoulder to shoulder, facing the Death Eaters behind Lord Voldemort.  
“Stay with me, please.” Sirius said quietly so only Remus would hear.  
“Always.” He promised.  
A flash of purple light flew over their heads, and as if the entire mob of people had been waiting for the starting shot, suddenly they were surrounded by a real-life battle.  
They tried staying close to the others, but soon they’d lost sight of James and Peter. Sirius frantically tried to locate them, while also guarding Remus’ back.  
“I can’t see James and Peter anymore!” He shouted to Remus.  
Remus looked around, but couldn’t see them either.  
“I’m sure they’ll be fine. James loves a good duel.” He said, trying to reassure himself as much as Sirius.  
They didn’t have much time to talk as they were attacked from two sides by a couple of Death Eaters. One of them removed his mask and lisped:  
“Don’t I know you, little wolf?”  
Sirius saw Remus stiffen and go white. He recognized the face from posters.  
“Get lost, Greyback.” He sent a stunning spell that hit the werewolf square between the eyes. Greyback stumbled, but didn’t fall.  
“How about I make you a little wolfy friend?” He leered at Remus and moved towards Sirius.  
Remus seemed to snap out of his stupor and hit the wolf with three consecutive stunning spells, finally making him slump down. Remus looked back at Sirius, to find him engaged in a bitter duel with his cousin Bellatrix.  
“Still consorting with the riff-raff, I see.” She taunted him, nodding at Remus.  
“Shut up, Bella.” He said through gritted teeth, trying to keep up with her rapid-fire assault.  
“Auntie should have used a stronger curse. Let me show you.” She pointed her wand a Sirius, but Remus hit her first.  
“Ooh, he’s got spunk!” She laughed. “And I thought you’d abandoned us for just any old pretty face!”  
She turned her handsome face on Remus, the set of her eyes so much like her cousin’s that it threw him for a minute.  
“Crucio!” She smiled. Sirius saw Remus go down, and for a second his brain didn’t follow. It looked as though Remus was Turning, his body twisting away from itself in pain. Forgetting for a moment that he was a wizard, forgetting everything but the pain on his boyfriend’s face, Sirius tackled Bellatrix head first, throwing her down on the ground.  
Her wand fell from her hand and Remus’ pain instantly stopped. The ceasing of Remus’ screams allowed Sirius to think more clearly and he pointed his wand at his cousin’s face.  
“What are you going to do, _Sir_?” She grinned, using Regulus’ old nickname for him.  
“Stupefy.” Remus said quietly from behind his back. Bellatrix’s face went slack, and Sirius felt a soft hand pull him away from her.  
“Are you alright?” Sirius turned and put his hands around Remus’ face.  
“I’m used to pain, it’s fine.” He smiled, almost selling it despite the wincing. “What did she mean, when she said you left because of me?”  
“If we're still alive tomorrow, I’ll tell you.”  
They tried to find their friends again, but they were surrounded by total chaos. Then in between two fighters, Sirius saw a shock of red hair.  
“There’s Lily!” He called to Remus. He started to make his way towards her and noticed she was bowed over someone.  
Sirius heart seemed to drop right through his body as he recognized the unruly black hair of the boy laying on the ground in a widening pool of what looked like blood.  
His face looked incredibly pale, but surely he couldn’t be…  
Ignoring Remus’ shout to be careful he made his way towards his brother, dodging people and curses as best he could. When he reached them he bounced off a force-field. He yelled to get Lily’s attention.  
She turned a tear-stained face towards him, her wand moving up to protect herself. Her face crumpled in relief when she recognised Sirius and with wave she undid her protection charms.  
“What happened?” Sirius asked frantically, falling on his knees beside James. His hand still felt warm where Sirius touched it, and his breath came a little easier.  
“There’s no time, we need to get him out of here. I’ve done all I can, but I can’t stop the curse and he keeps losing more blood every minute.”  
Sirius tried to pick James up in his arms and was immediately drenched in blood. He saw the front of James’ shirt was ripped to shreds, as was the skin underneath. He couldn’t place the sort of curse that would do that. _James would know_, he thought desperately.  
“I tried Apparating, but I can’t do it.” Lily admitted, new tears rolling down her cheeks.  
“Where’s Peter?” Sirius asked, his hope renewed.  
“I don’t know, he wasn’t with him anymore.” Lily slashed her wand to deflect an incoming spell. “But we need to get him out now, Sirius!”  
At that moment all around them uniformed Aurors of the Department of Magical Law-enforcement Apparated. Seeing that they were no longer fighting untrained civilians, the Death Eaters started to retreat.  
Hoisting James higher up in his arms, ignoring the new wave of blood pouring out, Sirius started sprinting away. With a relief that made his knees weak, he saw a St Mungo’s sign go up at the end of the street. Running faster than he’d ever done before he carried his friend towards the wand and bone. 

“There’s nowhere to go.” James told the others as he looked around for an escape route. “Stay close.”  
He made a mental tally of the people around him, lingering on Lily. His hand still tingled where she’d held it earlier this morning.  
He curled his hand in a fist and tried to clear his mind from such nonsense. He moved slightly in front of Peter, the least accomplished duelist among them.  
“Stay close to me.” He muttered.  
Peter nodded, trying to look determined, but not able to hide the fear in his eyes.  
From one second to another they were fighting. James had always been fond of duelling, and good at it, too. Defence Against the Dark Arts had been his favourite subject since coming to Hogwarts, and he had secretly dreamt about being able to put his skills to the test in a real-life fight.  
The truth was that, had he only himself to think of, he would be rather enjoying himself. His quick reflexes, honed on the Quidditch Pitch, made most of his opponents seem slow and dull, and he felt rather like he was playing a game.  
Peter’s frightened yelps helped to remind him that it wasn’t in fact a game at all, and that they wouldn’t be able to ask for a time-out when they needed it.  
With renewed determination he made his way towards a side street, making sure Peter was still following. He tried to keep track of his other friends, but they were all engaged in their own fights and spreading farther and farther apart.  
Swearing quietly he stunned a Death Eater in front of him and Disarmed another. There was an opening at the end of the street, if only they could make it through.  
“Peter, you see that space between those people over there?” He called over his shoulder.  
“Yeah.”  
“When I say so, run as fast as you can towards it. Get out of here and get help!” James threw up a Shield Charm, narrowly avoiding them both getting hit by a wayward curse.  
“Now!” He bellowed. Peter looked uncertain for a second, but then started running as fast as his short legs could carry him. James looked after him to make sure he made it out, then returned towards the thick of the battle.  
He saw Frank Longbottom and Alice Johnson driving back a ferocious Death Eater, leaving behind a string of masked bodies. He searched for Sirius and Remus frantically, but couldn’t find them. He made his way through a group of duelists and caught sight of Lily being backed up towards the side of the street.  
He called out her name but she didn’t hear him. She was holding her own quite well, until they had her cornered her with her back against the wall of a butcher’s shop.  
She straightened her shoulders, her face determined, but he could see she didn’t think her chances were good. He ran through the fighters, deflecting curses as he went, no longer bothering to fight back. He saw them raise their wands and for a second he thought he wouldn’t make it in time. He pointed his wand around the back of two witches fighting in front of him and managed to stun one of them. He ducked around and dropped the second Death Eater as well.  
Lily frowned down at the two before looking up at him, her eyes a little wild.  
“Alright, Evans?” The words had left his mouth before he had time to think about them. What a stupid question. They were in the middle of a battle, _of course she wasn’t alright_.  
But the corners of her mouth quirked up slightly and she nodded, looking relieved to see him. She came to stand next to him, and he berated himself for noticing how her shoulder brushed against his.  
They were almost immediately approached by two new Death Eaters, the masks giving them an eerie grin. They fell into an easy rhythm, Lily and James alternately defending and attacking. They made their way through the battle almost easily, trying to locate their other friends.  
James spotted Sirius and Remus, Remus standing up painfully, while Sirius seemed to be punching someone in the face. James turned around to tell Lily he’d spotted them, but she was engaged with a new attacker. This one seemed more skilled than their previous opponents, and James needed all his attention to meet the challenge.  
With satisfaction, he noted that the two of them together were more than a match for this fighter. He sent a curse the black-clad wizard’s way, causing him to stumble.  
James raised his wand to deal a final blow, when he felt Lily freeze next to him. The next second a searing pain blew through him tearing him apart. He looked down at himself in surprise and saw large cuts forming on his torso, blood running out at an alarming rate. Feeling suddenly dizzy he fell to his knees. He saw Lily run towards him, trying to catch him before his face hit the ground.

The next thing James knew was a severe-looking witch looking down at him, shining her wand in his eyes.  
He closed his eyes against the spike that went through his brain and groaned.  
“Prongs?!” James recognised Sirius’ voice and opened his eyes again.  
“Padfoot?” His voice came out as a croak. It took a minute for his eyes to land on his best friend. “Are you alright? Where are the others?”  
Sirius put a hand on James’ shoulder to stop him from getting up, eliciting a painful hiss.  
“Don’t move, mate, you’re still healing.”  
“Did everyone make it?” James urged.  
“We can’t find Wormtail.” Sirius admitted, a deep frown marring his face.  
“I sent him away to get help.”  
“Thank Merlin!" Sirius sagged in relief. "We were sure something had happened to him.”  
“So you and Remus are fine?”  
“Yes, Remus is over there with Lily. Marlene’s…” Sirius trailed off, not able to finish his sentence.  
James turned his head to see Lily with her arms around Marlene. He let out a sigh of relief. Then he noticed they were standing around a body. Two people James thought were Marlene’s parents were clutching at a dead boy’s chest.  
“Who…?”  
“Marlene’s older brother. Daniel.” Sirius' voice broke.  
“Is it over?” James looked around. They were in some sort of tent, surrounded by wounded and crying people.  
“St Mungo’s Healers are going through the streets to see to the wounded.” Sirius swallowed painfully. “And the dead.”  
James looked up at the canvas of the tent, fighting against the overwhelming feeling of surrealism. Surely he would wake up in a second, all this nothing more than a bad dream. Things like this didn’t happen. Not here, not in his life. These were things you read about in the paper, and shook your head about sadly before moving on to the Quidditch pages.  
But looking away to hide the tears sliding down his face, James knew that he would carry the weight of today for the rest of his life.


	17. Aftermath

The train ride back to Hogwarts was a quiet one. Marlene had stayed back with her parents, while James would be held at St Mungo’s for another few days.  
He had been awake before they left, but the guilt had smothered Lily to the point she’d only been able to force out: “How are you feeling?” before taking off.  
She hadn’t even heard his answer, too consumed with the possibility that he could have been buried next to Daniel McKinnon and it would have all been her fault.  
Remus and Sirius tried to ask her what had happened, but she waved them off, and they decided to let it rest for now. They sat with their heads close together, occasionally whispering, while Sirius stroked Remus’ back unthinkingly. On the other side of the compartment, Frank and Alice were holding hands tightly, staring out of the window blankly.  
Peter had his eyes closed, and apart from the occasional whimper, gave no sign of life. Lily had never felt more alone.  
They walked to the school in silence, everyone lost in their own recollections. When they entered the Great Hall, everything was going on as normal. People walking to their dorms, laughing and talking. They obviously didn’t know what had happened yet.  
Lily looked up to see Mulciber, Avery and Snape coming from the dungeon stairwell. They were laughing together, as though nothing was wrong.  
The blood rushed to Lily’s head, and she saw red. Pulling out her wand, she stormed over to Severus.  
“How dare you!” She shrieked. “How dare you stand here laughing, after what you just did!”  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Evans.” He said coolly, eyeing her wand surreptitiously. Only because she knew him so well did she notice the twitching underneath his left eye. “I’ve been in my common room all afternoon. Ask anyone.”  
Avery and Mulciber grinned and nodded vigorously. “We were with him the whole time!”  
“You lying piece of …” Lily pulled back her wand, not sure what she was going to do when she heard: “Miss Evans! Lower your wand immediately!”  
Professor McGonagall was coming down the stairs and she looked furious. Lily considered her options and lowered her wand grudgingly.  
“This isn’t over.” She said to Snape softly, then turned around to face McGonagall.  
“Please follow me to my office, Miss Evans.” McGonagall said shortly. She turned around swiftly and motioned for Remus and Peter to follow her as well. When they reached her office she told the boys: “Please wait here until I call you in.”  
She sat down and pointed to the chair on the other side of her desk for Lily.  
“I have just had to inform one of your fellow Gryffindors that he shall be attending his brother’s funeral this week, and the next moment I find my own Perfect fighting in the hallway! Do you care to explain yourself?”  
“No, Professor.” Lily said shortly. If what Severus had said was true, she couldn’t prove he had been there. It was just her word against his.  
“No?” McGonagall pursed her lips. “Have you not seen enough fighting for one day, Miss Evans?”  
The images of the battle poured into Lily’s brain, the fear and the blood, James’ face going slack and she was sure he was going to die…  
Lily screwed up her face and pushed her hands against her eyelids to stop the onslaught of memories.  
To her surprise she felt a hand on her shoulder, and before she knew what was happening, Professor McGonagall was holding her tightly.  
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.” She said quietly. “I wish I could say it will get easier, but we all have to live with the things we’ve done.”  
McGonagall stepped back behind her desk, and Lily wiped her eyes.  
“Snape, Avery and Mulciber were there, fighting for You-Know-Who.” She said. “I can’t prove it, but I am certain they were there.”  
“Can anyone else confirm this?”  
“No.” Lily admitted.  
“Then I’m afraid there isn’t much we can do.”  
“So they just get away with it?” Lily asked hotly. “Marlene and Samuel McKinnon’s brother is dead! James Potter could have died! And they get to go back to their classes as though nothing happened?!”  
“I know it seems impossible, Miss Evans, but I urge you to leave the enforcement of the law to the Wizengamot. Those responsible will be brought to justice. But not by you.” She looked at Lily sternly. “Is that understood?”  
“Understood, Professor.”  
“Please call Mister Lupin and Mister Pettigrew in. You may go, Miss Evans.”

The news about the Battle of Whitehall, as it was being called, spread through the school like wildfire. Those students who had been there were being hounded with questions and pleas for first-hand accounts, though most of them refused to talk about it.  
The Daily Prophet ran the story for days. The failed March on the Ministry also meant the end of the SWAMP. After their son’s death, the McKinnons didn’t wish to continue heading it up, and many of the other people who had participated now preferred to slide back into the safety of an anonymous life.  
James came back to school by Wednesday, and was hailed as a hero by most, though remaining uncharacteristically cool under all the attention. The only people he allowed near him were the Marauders, and they made sure to shield him from unwanted questions at all times.  
The only person who didn’t seem to seek out his company was Lily. He didn’t understand what was going on. She had acted weird when he saw her right after the battle, but he had assumed she was still in shock.  
He had been back for two days however, and she still hadn’t talked to him. Before this year he would have assumed she just didn’t care, but he didn’t believe that was true anymore.  
On Saturday he caught her leaving the common room at 7:30 in the morning.  
“Lily, wait a minute!” He called after her. She turned back in surprise.  
“Why are you up this early?” He detected a hint of dismay in her tone.  
“We usually have Quidditch practice now.” He didn’t have to explain why it was cancelled. Lily’s face fell at the reminder of last week.  
“Of course. Well, I was just heading to the library. So I’ll see you later.” She tried to get away quickly.  
“Lily, wait. Did I do something wrong?” James asked helplessly. “I feel like you’ve been avoiding me all week.”  
When she turned back to him, he noticed her eyes looked alarmingly wet.  
“After what happened, I figured you wouldn’t want me around.”  
James looked puzzled. “What?”  
“I almost got you killed!” Lily’s voice came out a lot louder than she’d intended in the deserted hallway. She continued in a softer tone. “I was supposed to protect you, and instead you got hurt. Because I couldn’t…”  
“Woah, Lily, I’m fine! And from what I’ve heard that is mostly _thanks to you_. If you hadn’t used those Blood-Replacement Charms, my Healer said I probably wouldn’t have made it. So you _saved_ my life.”  
Lily shook her head. “Your life wouldn’t have needed saving if I hadn’t hesitated. But when that Death Eater’s sleeve came up, I recognised him.” She confessed, and saw James’ eyes darken. “So it _was_ my fault. And there’s nothing I can do about it.”  
“I don’t blame you for hesitating to attack a friend.” James said quietly, even though the words left a bitter taste in his mouth. “If that had been Remus or Peter, I would have hesitated too. What happened was not your fault.”  
The weight that had been crushing Lily all week seemed to lighten slightly. She threw her arm around James without thinking.  
“I’m glad you’re okay.” She muttered against his shoulder.  
Ignoring the pain in his healing scars, he tentatively put his arms around her.  
“I”m glad you’re talking to me again. I missed your snarky comments.”  
They broke apart, a little embarrassed.  
“Sorry about that. From now on only snarky comments from me.”  
Lily smiled for the first time in a week.

On Sunday evening Marlene and Samuel returned to Hogwarts. Samuel’s eyes were rimmed red, but Marlene looked stoic.  
Lily and Mary ran over to her the moment she entered the common room.  
“I’m so sorry.” Mary said hugging her tight.  
“How are you?” Lily asked concerned.  
Marlene merely shrugged. “I’ll be going to bed, it’s been a long day.”  
She shouldered past her friends and made her way upstairs. Lily and Mary looked at each other unsure.  
“Should we go after her, or…” Mary asked.  
“Let’s just give her some space for now.” Lily looked after Marlene with a frown.  
The next day, Marlene went back to classes and Quidditch training as though nothing had happened.  
“Do you think we should say something about it?” Mary asked after a couple of days.  
“We’ve got a free period this afternoon.” Lily said. “I’ll try to talk to her then.”  
“Good luck with that.” Mary spotted someone she wanted to talk to and took off. “See you at lunch!”  
Lily sighed. She wasn’t exactly looking forward to confronting Marlene, but she was also worried about her friend.  
That afternoon they were going over their Ancient Runes homework, the common room nearly deserted.  
“How are you doing?” Lily started.  
“Pff, I don’t know. Do you think _Jera_ means harvest or justice?” Marlene answered, thumbing through her book absent-mindedly.  
“In this case it’s justice.” Lily said. “But that’s not what I meant.”  
“Then what did you mean?” Marlene put her book down with a thump, looking at Lily with challenge in her eyes.  
“I want to know how _you_ are doing. You’ve hardly said anything since you’ve been back.”  
“That’s not true, I’m talking all the time.”  
“Exactly. You talk, but you don’t say anything.” Lily threw back.  
“There’s nothing to say. Daniel is dead, end of story.” Marlene’s jaw flexed as she forced herself not to look away from Lily.  
“Marlee…”  
“What?!” Marlene burst out. “What do you want me to do? Lay in bed all day bawling, throw myself off the Astronomy tower?”  
“Of course not! But it would be alright to feel something.”  
“_Something_?” Marlene laughed humourlessly. “You think I don’t feel anything?”  
“No, of course not, I...”  
“My brother is _dead_, Lily. He’s gone, and it’s all my fault because I told him to take me back. I called him a coward just to get him to go back and it got him killed.”  
Marlene looked away from Lily, unable to bear the pity she saw in the other girl’s face.  
“I feel guilty, and sad, and I feel like I don’t have the right to be sad because it’s my fault he’s dead. I feel angry, at myself for pushing him, and I am _furious_ at Danny for getting himself killed. And then I feel guilty again for blaming him for being dead. I mean, who does that?” Marlene looked back at Lily, her eyes shining. “The problem isn’t that I don’t feel anything, it’s that I feel everything, all the time! And none of it will bring my brother back.”  
Lily got up and threw her arms around her friend. At first, Marlene kept her body rigid, but after a moment she grabbed hold of Lily and buried her face in her shoulder.  
“It wasn’t your fault. If Daniel was here he would say the same thing.” Lily told her. “Blaming yourself isn’t helping anyone. Believe me, I’ve been there.”  
She hugged Marlene tighter.  
“I don’t want to tell you how to deal with this, but just know that you can always talk to me, alright?” Lily let her cheek rest against the top of Marlene’s head and held her close until the sobs stopped rocking her.


	18. Dancing Queen

_Saturday, 19 March 1977_

As February passed into March, the fascination with the Battle died down. Those who hadn’t been there returned to the more immediate troubles of homework, Quidditch and House points, while those who had been there tried their best to forget and live their lives as though it had never happened.  
March saw the seventeenth birthdays of both James and Remus, and in honour of this, as well as the end of their month-long detention, they decided to have a party in the Gryffindor common room. The planning had been going on for weeks now, but when the day finally arrived they still thought of things missing.  
“We forgot party hats!” James exclaimed at seven in the morning.  
“I got you hats yesterday, you moron.” Sirius groaned, pulling his covers up over his face.  
“But did you get the right party hats?” Remus grinned, his face turned halfway into his pillow.  
“Sod off, Moony.” Sirius' pillow hit Remus square in the face.  
The rest of the day was spent in last-minute preparations. The boys threw themselves into the party with more enthusiasm than they actually felt, but they needed something to lift their spirits after the events of last month.  
When the evening finally fell everyone was quite excited for the festivities to start. Sirius and Peter had forced every Gryffindor present to put on a party hat, including Mary’s cat. The poor thing was now sat underneath an armchair, glowering from beneath its hat at every passerby.  
Remus and James were both wearing elaborate crowns, Remus clearly mortified while James looked positively delighted.  
“Dearly beloved.” Sirius started pompously, his voice magically magnified to boom over the chatter in the common room. “We are gathered here today to celebrate the birthdays of the two most important people in my life: James Potter, my best friend and brother, and Remus Lupin, my hot-ass boyfriend.”   
He kissed Remus with a grin, whispering: “The crown suits you.”  
“You’re such a drama-queen.” Remus whispered back.  
Turning back to the crowd, Sirius yelled: “I won’t bore you with a long-winded speech. Let’s party!”  
With a wave of their wands the four boys started a nearby gramophone they’d nicked from Filch’s office, dropped a bunch of confetti from the ceiling and made the fire in the hearth burst out different colours, resembling a muggle disco ball.  
A group of fourth years immediately moved into the cleared space in the middle of the common room and started dancing.  
Remus and Sirius moved over to where Lily was standing.  
“Where is your hat, Evans?” Sirius questioned sternly.  
Lily felt her head in mock surprise. “I must have lost it.” She answered with a grin.  
“No matter, we’ve got back-ups.” Remus grinned back and planted a new party hat on Lily. “If I have to wear this stupid crown, you have to wear a stupid hat.”  
“Oi, I chose that crown with love!”  
“And I still think it’s stupid.” Remus kissed Sirius on the cheek. “But I think _you_ are adorable.”  
“Merlin’s beard, you guys are so soppy!” Lily laughed.  
“That’s what I keep telling them!” James came up behind her. “But to no avail. It’s kissing all day, everyday with these two.”  
“You’re just jealous, Prongs.” Sirius grinned at James contentedly, his arm slung around Remus’ waist.  
“You bet I am.” James answered with a smile. “Do you want a drink, Lily?”  
He held out a purple fizzing glass to her, a mischievous glint in his eyes.  
“What’s in it?” Lily asked suspiciously, taking a whiff of the drink.  
“Just some grape juice.” James said innocently.  
“_Right._ I think I’ll go with something else, thanks.” She handed him back the glass with a smile and moved over to the drinks table.  
“The purple ones _are_ fine, right?” Remus asked once she was out of earshot.  
“Yeah, but the red one she’s taking now isn’t.” Sirius grinned excitedly.  
The boys were joined by Peter and watched in anticipation as Lily brought her drink to her lips. She’d only taken a small sip, but it was enough. A blue wave washed over her red hair, moving from her roots to the tips of her ponytail.  
Unaware of anything wrong, she moved over to where her friends were standing.  
“Bold fashion statement, Lily.” Mary exclaimed. “I like it!”  
“What?” Lily asked uncomprehendingly.  
“The blue hair.” Marlene explained.  
“The blue…” Lily pulled the ends of her ponytail towards her face and started. “What the hell?!”  
She moved over to a nearby mirror and saw that her whole head of hair was now a startling azure blue. If it hadn’t been for her red eyebrows, it would have actually suited her.  
She turned to where the four Marauders were giggling amongst themselves and looked down at her drink.  
Over the course of the night, people got green hair, purple skin, pink eyes and bright yellow teeth. Mary made it into a sport to get as many different colors as possible, trying to decide if she would get one permanently.  
“What do you think of the purple?” She asked Samuel.  
“I think it all looks lovely on you.” He smiled, and leaned forward to kiss her.  
Lily and Marlene looked on in astonishment as their friend kissed him back.  
“Good answer. But not very helpful.” Mary wound her fingers through Samuel’s and turned to the girls. “What do you guys think: purple or pink?”   
“I quite like the pink, actually.” Lily said, after an awkward pause where Marlene stared at her brother. “Or maybe try a more lavender purple, I think this one’s quite harsh.”  
“Hmm, I’ll think about it.” Mary said, admiring the bright purple color of her skin.  
“Do you want to dance?” Samuel asked, uncomfortable under Marlene’s silent stare.  
“Sure.” They made their way over to the designated dancefloor and wound their arms around each other tightly.  
“Did you know they were seeing each other?” Lily asked Marlene.  
“No, I had no idea.” Marlene sounded strangely blank.  
“And are you.. okay with it?” Lily wasn’t sure how to interpret Marlene’s reaction.  
“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” She still sounded strange. “I think I’ll be going to bed.”  
Lily watched Marlene go up the stairs, wondering what was going on inside her friend’s head.  
She looked over at the dancefloor. It was getting late, so a lot of the younger students had left for bed. Mary and Samuel were still intertwined, and Lily saw Sirius and Remus sneak out of the portrait hole.  
Lily was just contemplating whether she would go dance on her own, surrounded by all those couples, or would just follow Marlene’s example and go to bed when she heard a voice coming from behind.  
“What are you doing, sitting here all on your own?”  
“Contemplating the new colour of my hair.” Lily turned around with a mock frown.  
“I think it suits you! You should consider keeping it like this.” James grinned. “But seriously, this is a party! You should be dancing.”  
James held out his hand to her, holding his breath in the hope that she would take it. To his surprise she did so with a smile.  
“I might step on your toes.” She warned him.  
They made their way to the dancefloor hand in hand and started dancing. Lily had obviously been joking about stepping on his toes because she was surprisingly graceful.  
The song changed to something more uptempo, and James twirled Lily around.  
“Isn’t this a Muggle song?” She asked in surprise when she recognised Dancing Queen.  
“Sirius put that in.” James explained. “He started listening to muggle music to annoy his mother, but turns out he actually likes a lot of it.”  
Lily twisted underneath his arm with a giggle when they almost collided with a table.  
“You know you are supposed to be leading me, not the other way around, right?.”  
“Says who? You’re obviously much better at it!”   
“Alright.” Lily moved her arm up and James turned around clumsily. “Or maybe not.”  
They laughed at each other, taking turns at trying to lead. The other dancers had to make room for them quite a few times, or risk being stumbled into.  
When the song changed to something calmer they were both slightly breathless.  
Lily rested her hand on James’ shoulder and they swayed slowly to the soft music.  
“I don’t think I know this song.”  
“Really? Celestina Warbeck is a classic!”  
“Not the sort of music I’d have pictured you listening to, but alright.” Lily joked.  
“_‘cause babe, you charmed the heart right out of me!_” James sang along, very much out of tune.  
“No need to ruin the song any further!”  
“Ouch! I’ll have you know my mum says I have a very steady singing voice, Evans.”  
“Well, didn’t your mother also say you looked adorable in that glittery Christmas jumper last year?”  
They grinned at each other stupidly.   
“Looks like your drink’s worn off.” James said quietly, pulling Lily’s hair forward so she could see it had returned to its natural colour. “I take back what I said before, red suits you way better than blue.”  
“Thanks.” Lily said. “Though I think you should consider keeping the green.”  
They danced to the song in silence, more at peace with each other than either of them had ever thought they could be. The moment was rudely interrupted by loud cracks and bangs going off all around the common room.  
With dismay James remembered the firecrackers and sparklers they’d hidden in all the hats to signify the end of their party. Several people jumped and yelled as fiery sparkles were sent all around the room.   
What had seemed like a hilarious idea on a late-night planning session, suddenly seemed childish and terribly timed to James. Lily had jumped away from him and was now awkwardly removing her smoking party hat.  
“Remind me to kill Remus for putting me in this hat!” Lily grinned up at him, stomping out the embers of the sparkler.  
“Will do.” James said, trying to ignore the stab of disappointment he felt at their dance being cut short.  
“I think I’ll be heading off to bed. Thank you for dancing with me.” With a smile, Lily leaned in and kissed James’ cheek, before making her way upstairs.  
James watched her go, his cheek tingling where her lips had touched it, a stupid grin plastered across his face.  
“Are you alright, Prongs, or would you like me to grab you a chair before you faint?” Peter came up behind him.  
“I’ll be fine, Wormtail.” James continued to grin. “I’ll be just fine.”

When Lily walked into her dormitory she was greeted by the sight of Mary and Marlene sitting on her bed.  
“Ah finally, there you are.” Mary started. “Answer this for me: have you kissed anyone lately?”  
“No, why?” Lily asked confused.  
“Well, have you wanted to kiss anyone, then?” Mary pushed.  
An image of James awkwardly twirling came into her mind, but with an amused shake of her head, Lily dismissed the random thought.  
“No, no one in particular.” She answered, joining the other girls on her bed.  
“But you wouldn’t _mind_ kissing someone, if the right person came along?”  
“Well, no, obviously not.” Lily said slowly, still not seeing where this was going.  
“There.” Mary said triumphantly, nodding at Marlene.  
“Can someone please explain to me what is going on?”  
“We were talking about kissing.” Mary looked at Lily. “And Marlene’s claiming that she’s never wanted to kiss anybody. Ever.”  
“And according to Mary that is impossible. So we asked you.” Marlene added.  
“Okay... And what has brought on this subject all of a sudden?” Lily asked.  
“In case you are suffering from short-term amnesia: our dear friend here was snogging my little brother just now.” Marlene said sarcastically.  
“He’s not that little.” Mary corrected with a devious smile.  
“Ew, please shut up!” Marlene shouted, covering her ears.  
“How on earth have you been able to keep that a secret, though?” Lily asked Mary, genuinely curious.  
“I haven’t kept anything secret.” Mary countered. “We’d just been growing closer for a while, but we’ve only really been together for a week.”  
“A week is longer than most of your relationships last!”  
“Oi, that’s not true!” Mary exclaimed, throwing a pillow at Lily. “Two weeks, at least.”  
“Oh two weeks, of course, _excuse me_!” Lily shot back with a grin.  
“We were talking about Marlene, anyways.” Mary changed the subject back.  
“Don’t know what more there is to talk about.” Marlene shrugged. “I just don’t want to kiss anyone.”  
“I know that you’re going through a hard time right now.” Mary said softly. “But surely some day you will feel different?”  
“This hasn’t got anything to do with Danny!" Marlene cried. "I do _like_ people sometimes, but I just don’t want to kiss them, or touch them, or have them touch me.”  
“Maybe you just haven’t found the right person yet?” Lily suggested.  
“I don’t think that’s it.”  
“Alright then. How about you, Lily?” Mary said. “It’s incredibly boring to be the only one with an interesting love life you know.”  
“Interesting is one word for it.” Lily joked, hoping to divert the attention away from herself again.  
“How about Potter?” Marlene suggested. “We know he’s been into you for years.”  
“True, and he’s very good-looking.” Mary agreed, an excited gleam in her eyes. “And he’s been rather well-behaved lately, wouldn’t you agree, Lily?”  
“I’ll agree to nothing but that he’s a good _friend_.” Lily said with emphasis.  
"Friends to lovers..." Mary grinned suggestively. "I'd be more than willing to give you some tips, you know."  
"Please, spare me that!" Lily exclaimed. "I'd as soon take dating advice from Filch."  
Mary hit Lily with her own pillow, who retaliated by pummeling her over the head with a pair of stray socks.  
After that, the girls decided to drop the subject. Later that night, after Lily had gone to bed, Mary whispered to Marlene:  
“Marlee? Are you awake?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Are you okay with me seeing your brother?”  
“Of course I am.” She paused. “Just watch out you don’t get your heart broken, alright? He tends to move on even faster than you do.”  
Marlene felt disloyal to her brother for saying it, but she also felt responsible for her friend.  
It stayed quiet after that, but each of the girls lay awake, ruminating on their own thoughts.

The next morning Remus and Sirius snuck into the Great Hall before daybreak. They’d spent the night on top of the Astronomy tower. The new moon had been practically invisible, and it was Remus’ favourite time of the month. When he had been younger he used to pretend there was no moon, but it always returned.  
They were the first ones up and decided to have a lengthy breakfast. Half an hour later they were joined by James, and not much later by Lily and Marlene.  
Siriusobserved the interaction between his best friend and Lily with rising suspicion. When she’d walked in his hand had immediately jumped to his hair, a gesture Sirius hadn’t seen for months. When they’d greeted each other, James had smiled uncommonly wide, and when he had passed Lily the butter and their hands touched, he had blushed faintly.  
With a wide grin, Sirius looked from one to the other as they went about their breakfast, superficially unchanged.  
When more people started streaming in for breakfast, Sirius wove his fingers through Remus’ and said: “Let’s make some room, Moony.”  
When he then pulled his boyfriend along into an empty classroom, Remus’ eyes lighted with anticipation.  
“Did you notice how strange Prongs was acting around Lily?” Sirius asked.  
“That is _not_ what I was hoping you’d say.” Remus said with a disappointed frown.  
“Get your mind out of the gutter, Lupin.” Sirius pulled him close for a quick kiss. “Seriously though, did you not notice?”  
“I wasn’t really paying attention.” Remus answered. Seeing he wouldn’t be able to distract Sirius from this, he added with a sigh: “What do you think is going on?”  
“I think our Prongs’ infatuation is back in full swing. And Pete said they were dancing last night, so there might be some hope yet.” Sirius ended triumphantly, waiting expectantly for Remus’ reaction.  
“I mean if they were _dancing_… Let’s ring the wedding bells, I suppose.” He answered dryly.  
“Don’t rain on my parade like that, Moony!” Sirius exclaimed. “You have to admit, there’s something there.”  
“I don’t have to admit anything.” Remus slipped his hands underneath Sirius’ robes.  
“Come on, what do you think, though?” Sirius persisted, ignoring Remus’ advances.  
“I think they’re old enough to know what they want, and we shouldn’t get involved.” He leaned in to kiss Sirius’ neck.  
“Well I _want_ to get involved. So how are you going to stop me?” Sirius asked with a suggestive smile, deciding his boyfriend was in more urgent need of attention than his brother’s love life.  
“I guess I’ll have to distract you.” Remus kissed him deeply, a wave of his wand locking the door.


	19. Dawn

Though getting distracted was very nice indeed, not getting involved where James was concerned was _not_ Sirius’ forte.  
The next morning they all had double Potions, the perfect moment for Sirius to test his theory.  
“Why Lily, you look very nice this morning! Don’t you agree, Prongs?”  
James mumbled his consent, while Sirius ignored Remus’ pointed look.  
“Did you do something to your hair?”  
“You mean like, not dye it blue?” Lily shot back.  
“Well it’s your own fault, our James here did offer you a clean drink. He’s a good person like that, our James.”  
Remus looked like he was choking on a bezoar, while James hissed under his breath: “What the hell are you doing, Padfoot?”  
“Not just a good _person_, but also very good-looking. What do you think, Lily?”  
“I think you’re trying to distract me from my potion so that you can win this week.” She concentrated on their cauldron.  
“Looks like she’s seen through you, Sirius, leave her alone.” Remus chided, his eyebrows raised meaningfully. James looked from one to the other uncomprehending.  
When they made their way to the library after class had been dismissed, James asked:  
“What is going on, Padfoot?”  
“What do you mean?” He asked innocently.  
“_Very good-looking, our James._” James intoned sarcastically. “What are you playing at?”  
“I just thought you could use a good wingman.” Sirius grinned. “I don’t see you making a move on your own, Prongs.”  
“Lily and I have just become friends, why on earth would I ruin that by _making a move_?”  
“Because you're obviously still head over heels for her, and for the first time ever you actually stand a chance?” Sirius suggested. "Besides, maybe she _ wants_ you to make a move?"  
“She really doesn’t.” James assured him. “So, please, don’t be embarrassing, alright?”  
James walked into the library, an annoyed frown on his face. Remus put a hand on Sirius’ back.  
“Embarrassing? _Me?_” Sirius repeated in a disbelieving tone.  
“I told you not to get involved, love.”  
“He doesn’t know what he’s saying. I’ll just have to be more subtle.”  
“It’s your funeral.” Remus sighed, and followed James into the library.

The first weekend of May saw the second to last Quidditch match of the year, Hufflepuff versus Slytherin.  
“Will you look at those two, Wormtail.” Sirius sighed wistfully, staring at James and Lily, who were whispering with their heads close together. “If only there was some way we could make them see they are perfect for each other!”  
“Moony made me promise I wouldn’t help you again.” Peter said quickly. “He says you’re not a matchmaker, and you shouldn’t play at being one.”  
“Did he now?” Sirius looked over at his boyfriend with narrowed eyes. Remus was in deep conversation with Mary McDonald and didn’t notice.  
Hufflepuff scored a goal, taking the lead, and the stadium erupted in loud cheers.  
_“Stewart scores, Hufflepuff takes the lead with 70 points!”_  
“Come on Elizabeth, catch that Snitch.” Marlene mumbled, calculating how many points Gryffindor was still in advance.  
“Don’t worry, Lena, Hufflepuff isn’t going to win.” Her brother patted her shoulder comfortingly.  
“That’s what you said when they played Ravenclaw, Sammy.” Marlene responded.  
“Yeah well, that was before I knew how bad the Ravenclaw team actually was this year. It’ll be a piece of cake.”  
_“A good save by Simmons - Vincent is now in possession of the quaffle. Nice dodging of that Bludger by Turner! She passes to Smith - Stewart - Vincent again - and she scores! 80 to 60 for Hufflepuff!”_  
Hufflepuff scored another two consecutive goals, bringing their score to 100 points.  
Marlene turned to her brother. “You were saying?”  
“Alright, maybe they will win, but they’d have to get the Snitch to overtake our score.” Samuel admitted grudgingly.  
Slytherin’s game became more aggressive, and they managed to take back the lead. So far there hadn’t been a single sign of the Snitch, and Marlene was starting to fret.  
The game was being played hard and fast, both teams scoring goals and taking hits. Lyra Black, one of the Slytherin Chasers, had to dismount her broomstick after a well-aimed Bludger broke her nose. She was quickly fixed by Madame Pomfrey, and retaliated by throwing the quaffle straight into William Simmons’ face. It bounced off and went through the hoop, scoring a counting goal for Slytherin.  
Jimmy Stainton then aimed a Bludger at Todd Blaise, which earned Slytherin a penalty goal since the quaffle hadn’t been near the Slytherin Keeper.  
By the time the score was 150 to 200 for Slytherin, Marlene’s nails had been bitten to the quick.  
_“Avery is making his way over to the Hufflepuff side of the Pitch, while it seems Moore has spotted the Snitch and is initiating a dive manoeuvre!”_  
The crowd held their breath as the Hufflepuff Seeker hurtled for the ground in what was almost a vertical line. At the last moment, she pulled her broom up, and putting her right arm into the air triumphantly, showed off the Snitch.  
“Moore catches the Snitch, Hufflepuff wins the game with 300 points!”  
Marlene sagged down in relief, as all around her people cheered.  
“They’re 100 points in advance, I’m sure we can manage that.”  
“Don’t be _too_ optimistic, Lena, you don’t want to jinx it.” Samuel joked.  
She just shot him a dirty look.  
“I suddenly remember why I liked Elizabeth. That was a very daring dive she just did.” Mary commented.  
“I can be daring.” Samuel said defensively, turning to his girlfriend.  
“Hmm, I know. Don’t be jealous.” She pecked him on the lips with a grin.  
Samuel grumbled something, but his smile told her he was appeased.  
They linked their fingers together and got up, following the rest of the crowd out of the stands.  
Marlene made her way over to James to discuss the ramifications of this match for their own game at the end of the month, and Sirius moved in to take his vacated place by Lily’s side.  
“So, what did you think of the game?”  
“It was very exciting, a lot more so than the game against Ravenclaw.” She answered, shooting him a suspicious glance. This was the first time in six years that Sirius had asked her for quidditch commentary.  
“Didn’t you feel there was something lacking?” Sirius hedged.  
“What do you mean?” Lily frowned.  
“Oh I don’t know, I just always feel a game is so much more enjoyable if there are a few handsome players to look at.”  
“If you ask Mary I’m sure she could tell you that there were, in fact, a few handsome players to look at.” Lily answered, not taking the bait.  
“Sure, but I was thinking more of one particular handsome player.”  
“We’re not doing this again, Sirius.”  
“Oh come on, Lily! Why can’t you just admit it? You like James, James likes you, what’s the problem?”  
“Did he say that he likes me?” Lily asked surprised.  
Sirius looked at her slyly.  
“Does it matter? I thought you weren’t interested.”  
“I’m not.” Lily paused and looked ahead, seeing James eagerly talking to Marlene. “But did he say that he likes me?”  
“I couldn’t possibly betray my best friend’s confidence.” Sirius grinned widely. “But I’m sure he’d be happy to tell you if you asked.”  
“You are unbelievable!” Lily grinned, crossing her arms in exasperation.  
“How about you ask him right now?”  
“What? No, Sirius, shut up!” Lily tried to stop him, but before she’d finished her sentence Sirius had already called out.  
“Oi, Prongs, come over here a second!”  
“I hate you so much right now!” Lily hissed under her breath.  
“What’s up?” James asked when he’d joined them.  
“Lily wanted to ask you something important.” Sirius nudged her with his elbow.  
“No, I really didn’t.” Lily said, throwing Sirius her deadliest look.  
“Really? Because I thought you wanted to know whether James…”  
“Is ready for the Apparition exam next week?” Lily interrupted quickly.  
“Sure, How about you? If I remember correctly I managed to Disapparate a full half-hour before you.” James taunted.  
“Well if _I_ remember correctly, I managed it without splinching myself, Mister Who-Needs-Both-Feet-Anyways.”  
This set them off on another round of squabbling, and with a deep sigh, Sirius let them get ahead of him. After a moment he was joined by Remus, who took his hand with a grin.  
“Were your plans foiled again?”  
“Honestly, it’s worse than watching Professor Kettleburn trying to find a Thestral.” Sirius shook his head sadly.  
“I’m sure they’ll get there eventually.” Remus said calmly. “Or they might, if you stopped violently pushing them together every chance you get.”  
“Don’t give him new ideas, Moony.” Peter piped up from behind them. “Before you know it, he’ll actually be shoving them together like play dolls.”  
“Stop betraying all my plans, Wormtail!” Sirius cried indignantly. “I thought you were on my side?”  
“Nah, Moony’s promised me a bar of Zonko’s chocolate if I help him stop you.” Peter grinned.  
“Stabbed in the back, by my own friends! What a cruel world we live in!” 

Later that day the Gryffindor sixth years were studying in the common room, the start of their exams suddenly looming dangerously close.  
Lily was trying very hard to concentrate on her Herbology paper, but her eyes kept being drawn over to where James was labouring over his own books.  
_You like James, James likes you, what’s the problem?_  
Last year the idea that James could have liked her would have seemed repulsive, and the idea that she could have liked James would have sent her into hysterics for days.  
Then again, last year she had found James an annoying prat. This year she had seen a different side of him, one she hadn’t even believed existed and was admittedly quite fond of. But did that mean that she _liked_ him?  
She glanced over at him again and had to suppress a smile. He had scratched his nose with the wrong end of his quill and was now sporting a black ink moustache.  
She looked back at her own book and smiled to herself. James Potter was a massive dork. He acted like an arrogant prick from time to time, he was all too aware of his own talents, and he was prone to self-inflation. But he was also the first one to laugh at himself when he made a mistake, he stood up for his friends as fierce as if he were Godric Gryffindor himself, and he was the first person she trusted enough to be completely herself with. And Mary had not been lying when she’d called him very good-looking. Lily was surreptitiously studying his profile when he looked up and looked right at her.  
“What do you keep staring at, Evans?” He demanded.  
“Your moustache. I'm not sure it suits you.” She answered politely, hoping he couldn’t read her thoughts on her face.  
“My what?” He pulled the Two-Way Mirror from his pocket and looked at his reflection appraisingly before bursting into laughter. “I disagree, I think it looks very becoming!”  
He added another twirl on the end of the smudge.  
“Now I look like Juan Torres, the Harpy Hunter!” He smiled happily, brandishing his wand as if it were a sword.  
“I have no idea who that is, but I’m sure you do.” Lily shook her head good-naturedly.  
“You don’t know Juan Torres, the Harpy Hunter?” Marlene looked up from her homework. “My friend, I have failed you!”  
She launched into a description of the “best comic book series of our time”, helped along by the others, all their homework now forgotten. Lily joined into the discussion, largely to distract herself from any more revelations, but if she was honest also to see James excitedly explain about different ways to capture Harpies, unaware that he was still sporting that ridiculous ink moustache.


	20. The Apparition Exam

Chapter 20: The Apparition Exam

_ Saturday, 14 May 1977_

The second weekend of May brought the sixth years’ Apparition exam. Though they had assured each other with a lot of bravado that they would be sure to get top marks, both James and Lily found themselves quite nervous when the day arrived.  
Lily had already had to run back to her dorm-room twice. First, because she had forgotten her wand. The second time, because she had left her registration form for the exam when she’d gone up to grab her wand.  
She had also promised to report to Professor McGonagall about their patrol last night, so by the time she made it to the teacher’s room she was flustered and running quite late.  
Lily had her hand on the doorknob when the conversation inside made her pause.  
“I suppose Mister Lupin would be the obvious choice, since he was made prefect last year, and we know he works well with Miss Evans.” Professor Flitwick said.  
“True, although given his… _health condition_, I’m not sure it would be wise to add on to his workload. Being Head Boy would entail a lot of extra responsibilities on top of being a prefect.” Professor McGonagall argued.  
“Well, what about Mister Potter?” Slughorn suggested. “He’s always been top of my class, and though I must admit his extra-curricular activities haven’t always been entirely, shall we say _legal_, he has been rather exemplary this year.”  
“If you had suggested this to me last year I would have declared you mad, Horace, but I must admit I see sense in your suggestion. And I confess that it would please me greatly to see both Heads come from my own house.”  
With her hand still on the doorknob, Lily smiled wide, her upcoming exam momentarily forgotten. She had secretly hoped that she would be made Head Girl next year, and she had assumed Remus would be made Head Boy. But she couldn’t ignore the flutter in her stomach at the thought that she would get to spend more time with James.  
Schooling her features, she knocked on the door and walked in.  
“I brought you last night’s patrol report, Professor.”  
She handed the parchment to Professor McGonagall with a warm smile and left, thinking over the conversation she’d just heard.  
She caught up with the rest of her friends - minus Peter and Mary, who would have to take their test next school year - and hooked her arm through James’.  
“Today is going to be a good day, Potter.” He threw a bemused look at her wide smile and decided not to question his luck.  
“What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?” Marlene inquired, her eyebrow raised suspiciously. “You could hardly utter two words together over breakfast.”  
“I’ve just got a good feeling about today.” Lily smiled mysteriously. She didn’t want to share what she’d heard in case it didn’t work out after all, but her nerves were no match for the warm feeling she got in her chest at the thought of her and James as Head Boy and Girl.

They were told to wait inside the Three Broomsticks and were called in alphabetically. Mara Andrews from Ravenclaw was the first to go through the side door behind the bar, but she hadn’t come out yet when Miss Highwater called “Mister Black, Sirius” in.  
He squared his shoulders and swaggered in behind her, not letting on his nerves. She led him through the side room towards a door that led into a walled courtyard.  
“Your task is simple, Mister Black. You may take place within this hoop -” She indicated the hoop on the right side of the courtyard. “- and Apparate within that one.”  
She positioned herself near the second hoop, folding her hands patiently.  
Sirius took a deep breath and stepped into the hoop, trying to clear his head of everything but his destination. He closed his eyes, concentrated, then stepped deliberately into nothingness. When he opened his eyes he repressed a sigh of relief. He was stood bang in the middle of the second hoop, Miss Highwater smiling in approval from beside him.  
“Well done, Mister Black!” She handed him a slip of paper. “You may proceed through that door to get your Apparition permit filled out.”  
Inside he saw Mara Andrews waiting, alongside a Ministry worker who was filling out forms at a desk.  
“I believe this is for you.” He slid his piece of parchment across the desk. The man didn’t look up but pointed towards the chairs where Mara was waiting.  
“You may wait over there, once I’ve processed your file I will call out your name.”  
He shared a raised eyebrow with Mara before sitting down.  
They were slowly joined by more students, but the Ministry wizard just kept scribbling and didn’t call anyone’s name.  
After a few more minutes, Sirius was joined by Lily.  
“How did you do?” He asked.  
“Please wait in _silence_, while I fill out your forms!” The wizard cried out shrilly.  
He was sent strange looks by all of the students, but he didn’t look up from the papers he was scribbling on.  
Lily looked back at Sirius, her eyebrows raised in surprise, then whispered: “Alright. I almost stood on the hoop, but I managed to lift up my foot right on time. I wobbled a bit, but she didn’t mention it. How did it go with you?”  
“Perfect score.” Sirius grinned.  
“Naturally.”  
They were silent for a moment, regarding the scribbling Ministry worker who didn’t seem in any hurry to get started on their permits.  
“So…” Sirius started. “_Today is going to be a good day_, hey?”  
“Yes, I think so.” Lily shrugged, trying to feign indifference. “We’ll all pass our exams, the weather is nice, and before you know it’ll be summer.”  
“Humph.” Sirius pursed his lips. “And here I thought you were finally ready to admit you are violently in love with James.”  
“Violently in love?” Lily snorted, earning her another dark look from the Ministry wizard. “We’re not characters in some Victorian romance novel, you know.”  
“I know. You would be a lot more fun if you were.” Sirius sighed wistfully.  
“Sorry to disappoint.” Lily said, stubbornly folding her arms.  
“Seriously, though.” Sirius pressed on. “When _are_ you going to admit it?”  
“For Pete’s sake, Sirius!” Lily whispered furiously, throwing up her hands in exasperation. “You’re like a dog with a bone!”  
Sirius barked out a surprised laugh.  
“You don’t even know how right you are!” He shook his head with mirth. “But I'm still waiting for an answer to my question.”  
“You’ll be waiting a long time.” Lily promised, crossing her arms again and ostensibly looking out of the window. If she was honest with herself, at this point her denial was mostly about not giving Sirius the satisfaction of knowing he might be right.  
“Well for what it’s worth, I think you’re both idiots.”  
“What did I tell you about calling people idiots, Sirius?” Remus walked over with a mild smile, sliding into the seat next to Sirius.  
“That I should not refrain from doing so if necessary?”  
“Not even close.” Remus grinned. “So what did Lily do to be called an idiot?”  
“She’s being stupid.”  
“Oi!” Lily hit him in the shoulder. “I’m not stupid, you’re just annoying.”  
“I think I’ll have to side with Lily on this.” Remus grinned at Sirius, putting his arm around him so he could kiss the top of his head. “You are annoying.”  
“Well, there’s love for you!” Sirius shook his head sadly. “Just because you’re too nice to call Lily an idiot…”  
“I’ll call Lily an idiot.” Marlene said loudly, earning her an annoyed look from the Ministry wizard as she sat down next to Lily. “What have you done this time, Lils?”  
“Will you all stop calling me an idiot?” Lily frowned at her friends. “How did you do on your exam, Marlee?”  
“Oh, alright. I splinched off a bit of my hair, but she didn’t notice.” Marlene answered airily. “Saves me a trip to the hairdresser, so win-win! How did you guys do?”  
They all assured her they had done fine.  
“So is that twat going to get a move on with our permits, or what?” Sirius asked, looking at the scribbling man darkly. The room had filled up almost to full capacity now, everyone crammed into the tight space.  
The man looked up at Sirius, obviously having caught his comment, and with an exaggerated sigh pulled the stack of permits towards him and started stamping them.  
“Mara Andrews?” He called out crossly. “Simon Bradford? Louise Bradford? Sirius Black? Anne Caster?”  
They stood up and made their way over to collect their papers.  
“Sorry for calling you a twat, mate.” Sirius grinned as he took his papers.  
“I wouldn’t have expected any better from someone with your last name.” The man replied loftily. “Trevor Doherty? Simon Eames?”  
Sirius’ face fell and Remus stepped forward angrily, only to be interrupted by James coming up behind them.  
“What did you just say to my brother?” He asked furiously, shoving his papers on the desk.  
The man glanced down at James’ name and raised his eyebrow.  
“Seems arrogance runs in the Families.” He looked up and realised he was staring into five very angry faces, because Marlene and Lily had joined the boys in glaring daggers at him. Thinking better of the confrontation he handed them their papers and waved them off.  
“Here, take your papers and go. Leave me to my work!”  
“You really are a twat, by the way.” Remus snatched his papers and ostentatiously put his hand on Sirius’ ass as they walked out.  
The others quickly followed them outside, laughing wildly.  
“I can’t believe you called me an idiot, while you can’t even get a permit filled out without causing a row!” Lily grinned.  
“Why’d you call her an idiot?” James inquired, looking at Sirius.  
“‘Cause she was being stupid, obviously.” He answered, leering at Lily.  
“Alright, never mind!” Lily cried out, eager to change the subject. “How about we celebrate our permits with a drink?”  
This was met with agreement all around, so they went back inside the Three Broomsticks for butterbeer.  
One drink became many, and before they knew it, it was late afternoon and dark clouds were beginning to fill the sky.  
“We should be heading back.” Remus suggested. “It looks like rain.”  
They settled their tab with Rosmerta and headed out into the cool evening. They had only gone a few steps when drops started falling from the sky.  
They fell into two groups, Remus, Sirius and Marlene huddling under Sirius’ coat, while James and Lily did the same under his.  
“So, was today as good a day as you’d expected?” James asked as they hurried through the increasingly large raindrops.  
“Yes, I thought so. Don’t you?”  
“Hmm.” James hummed his agreement. Lily’s right side was pressed up against his left, and he was having trouble forming coherent thoughts. A good day, indeed.  
Lily looked up at him under the shelter of his coat, green eyes crinkling in amusement. “What, no snarky comeback? You are losing your edge, Potter!”  
“I am not!” James spluttered indignantly. “I’ll show you an edge.”  
He quickly pulled his coat down and took off at a run. Lily cried out as fat drops of cold water started pelting down the collar of her robes.  
“Alright, alright, you win!” She quickly ran after him and slung her arm around his waist to huddle back underneath his coat.  
“Lost my edge! That’ll teach you.” James said grumpily, but the corners of his mouth betrayed him by pulling upwards.  
They had fallen quite a bit behind the others, and James was just about to suggest they make a run for it when he felt the tip of a wand pressed to his back and a cold voice hissed:  
“Take your hands off her, Potter.”

“I can’t see James and Lily.” Marlene frowned, wiping the rain from her eyes as she looked back from the school gates.  
“Probably snogging underneath a tree somewhere.” Sirius shrugged, unconcerned.  
Marlene bit her lip in doubt. If they really were snogging, Lily would not thank her for interrupting. But Marlene also knew Lily’s dislike of rain, and she couldn’t imagine her friend willingly staying out in this weather any longer than she really had to.  
“I think we should turn back. They were right behind us, there’s no way they would’ve fallen behind that far.”  
She saw Sirius and Remus exchange a look, that probably meant as much as: “Let’s not upset the crazy girl who’s just lost a brother, and play along.”  
“Sure, let’s turn back a bit.” Remus sighed, after a longing glance towards the castle. He rubbed his hands across his arms trying to warm up, but only succeeded in drenching his robes even further.  
They had been walking back for what felt like several minutes, and Sirius was just about to suggest they head back and leave the love birds to it, when they came across James’ discarded coat.  
“Okay, that _is_ weird. I don’t see James leaving his coat for a snog.” Sirius admitted, taking out his wand.  
“Lily hates rain, she’d never let him.” Marlene answered distractedly, pointing the beam of her own wand between the trees.  
Sirius started walking into the forest, scanning the ground like a dog on a trail. After a heartbeat the other two followed him in, their wands held at eye-level.  
They had only gone a few hundred yards in when they heard raised voices. They increased their pace, staying close together, until they caught sight of Lily’s bright red hair through the trees. Someone was forcefully dragging her along, though she struggled so much that they didn’t make much progress.  
“Let go of me! I swear to God, if I get my hands on my wand, I will _end_ you!” She pulled back, then let herself fall in an attempt to loosen the other person’s hold on her.  
“Get up, Lily, I’m trying to do you a favor here!”  
The other three stiffened as they recognised the voice. Marlene tried to grab hold of the back of Sirius’ robes, but he had already stepped out from where they were hiding, his wand pointed in Severus Snape’s face.  
“Good night, Snivellus.” He said pleasantly. “Why don’t you unhand my friend here, before this has to become any more unpleasant?”  
The other boy’s face went white as he saw he was all of a sudden outnumbered four to one.  
“Black, this isn’t what you think. I was…”  
“Doing Lily a favor. By dragging her through the rain into a dark forest?” Sirius asked coldly. “I admit, I’m curious to know how even your deranged mind could work that out. But it’s cold and wet, and frankly I’m bored of you already. So let go of Lily, give her back her wand, and I promise I’ll make sure she doesn’t kill you. Today.”  
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Sirius.” Lily furiously pulled her arm from Snape’s grip, rubbing her wrist painfully. “He left James with Avery and Mulciber. Without his wand.”  
Marlene’s stomach dropped. They were all too aware of Mulciber’s sadistic tendencies. Without his wand, James would be defenceless. And the Quidditch final was next weekend, what if he wouldn’t be able to play?  
“Expelliarmus!” Three voices snapped through the silence, and Snape and Lily’s wands went flying as the combined spells hit Snape square in the chest. He was thrown into a tree and collapsed in a rumpled heap on the forest floor.  
Lily didn’t spare him another glance as she went looking for her wand. She handed Snape’s wand to Sirius and pointed to the west. “James is that way. Let’s go.”  
“Are we just going to leave him here?” Marlene asked, nudging Snape’s still form with her toe.  
“He can drown for all I care.” Lily started walking away. “He wouldn’t think twice about leaving any of us.”  
They all gaped after her.  
“Isn’t Evans supposed to be the voice of reason?” Sirius asked no one in particular, before waving his wand and levitating Snape along.  
“Don’t act like you’re such _angel_, just because Remus is rubbing off on you.” Marlene quipped, trying to distract herself from the darkness around her as they stumbled after Lily.  
“I’m surprised you even know that word, McKinnon.” Sirius shot back, making sure to hit Snape’s head against a tree.  
“Will you guys shut up for a second?” Remus hissed.  
Lily had stopped suddenly, scanning her surroundings.  
“They were supposed to be here!” She said shrilly. Marlene noted the slight hint of hysteria in her tone and moved to put a hand on her friend’s shoulder.  
“He’ll be fine, James can take care of himself.” She said as much to herself as to Lily. She remembered only too well that Danny had been able to take care of himself, too.  
She turned to Remus and Sirius, who were whispering amongst themselves, and for a moment she thought they were _sniffing_ the ground.  
“I think they went that way.” Remus pointed. “There are tracks here.”  
Marlene shook her head, trying to clear it. Of course, they had just been looking for tracks.  
“I don’t see anything.” Lily sounded doubtful, but she made to follow him anyway.  
A sharp cry broke through the quiet of the forest, and they took off running.  
The rain was coming down in sheets now, and Marlene had to blink furiously to keep the water from her eyes. It was only when she tasted salt that she realised she was crying.  
She couldn’t shake the feeling that they were going to find something horrible.

Up until a second ago, Sirius hadn’t been really worried. Even without a wand, James still had his fists, and having been at the receiving end of those several times over the years, he knew better than to discount them. But the cry they had heard just now had sounded very much like someone who was in terrible pain, and his stomach twisted at the thought of it being his brother.  
A string of curses burst from his mouth as the cry sounded again, and he ran faster, banging Snape’s unconscious head against a tree in the process. Why he had insisted on not leaving the stupid git behind was beyond him at this point.  
They were stumbling blindly through the dark trees, trying to locate the source of the noises, and Sirius would give anything to be able to turn into his Animagus form - but he couldn’t risk having to explain it to the girls.  
He almost ran into Remus, who had stopped and was holding up his left hand.  
“They’re through there.” Remus whispered. “Leave Snape here. If we split up we can come at them from both sides.”  
Sirius briefly put his hand on Remus’ back, then nodded to Lily. The two of them quietly circled around until they were on the opposite side of the small clearing.  
He could see Mulciber and Avery arguing, gesticulating wildly.  
“I can’t see James.” Lily frowned, standing on her tiptoes to get a better view.  
“Let’s go find him.” Sirius answered and he barged right through the trees.  
“Sorry to break up the party lads, but…” Sirius started, but he didn’t get to finish his brilliant introduction because from beside him Lily snapped her wand and the two boys in front of them were Disarmed and bound before they could even lift their wands.  
“Damn, Evans.” He muttered, but seeing the murderous look on her face he didn’t elaborate.  
“So much for coming at them from both sides.” Remus remarked, coming up beside Sirius.  
“Where is he?” Lily asked, frantically looking around the clearing. “What have you done with James?”  
“We’ll never tell.” Avery grinned, struggling against the ropes that pinned his arms to his sides. Sirius noticed he had a deep gash running down the left side of his face.  
“I’m not talking to a filthy Mudblood.” Mulciber spat in Lily’s direction, and if Remus hadn’t already had a firm hold on his hand, Sirius would have punched him in the face.  
“You’re wandless, tied up, and surrounded by four people who’d love nothing better than to test that new Ear-Shrivelling Curse.” Remus addressed the Slytherins coldly. “You might want to reconsider your stance.”  
Avery eyed Lily’s wand with a hint of worry, but Mulciber locked his lips and looked up at Remus defiantly.  
“Fine.” Remus sighed, and Sirius thought he might get to punch someone after all. He took a hopeful step forward, but Lily got there before him once again.  
A bright purple light hit Avery in the face, and for a second he looked scared. When nothing happened he started laughing.  
“Don’t know what you think that was supposed to do, but doesn’t look like it’s working.” He taunted. “If you think a little flash of light is going to scare me…" He trailed off, then added "I’ll never tell you what happened. Never... ‘Cause we tied him to that tree over there… we was going to make him watch as we hurt you, you know… but then that fool Severus couldn’t stomach it, so he dragged you away while our backs were turned. We ran after him, but I couldn’t catch him any more… And then when I got back…”  
“Shut up, you idiot.” Mulciber snapped, but Avery couldn’t seem to stop babbling.  
“When I got back… I saw…” Avery was clearly struggling to keep the words inside. “I saw…”  
Sirius’ patience had run out now, and he grabbed Avery by the throat.  
“You saw what? Just spit it out.”  
“He was gone… Not there anymore…” Avery pressed his lips together in an attempt to stay silent.  
“What do you mean, he was gone?” Lily pressed. “How did he get out?”  
“Don’t know… I think… I saw… a moose run away… must have bitten through the ropes or something.”  
Sirius let go of Avery, a relieved laugh escaping him. But Lily was not so easily reassured.  
“Don’t be ridiculous, there are no moose in this forest. Tell me the truth!” She pushed the tip of her wand into Avery’s chest, the threat clear in her eyes.  
Avery was spared from making an answer by the arrival of a stag that came galloping at full speed into the clearing. It stopped short when it spotted the six of them, and then awkwardly retreated back into the woods, stumbling over its own feet as it glanced from one face to the other, clearly wishing itself invisible.  
Lily’s mouth fell open, and Sirius burst out laughing, having to hold on to Remus for balance.  
“You see, I told you!” Avery squawked. “I don’t know why, but I’m not lying!”  
“You’re not able to lie because I used a modified Babbling Curse.” Lily agreed with a frown. “But that wasn't a moose, you dimwit."  
“So anything I ask him, he has to tell the truth?” Sirius inquired, saw a myriad of possibilities opening up before him. “Was it you who broke Regulus’ chessboard two summers ago?”  
“Yes.” Avery admitted through gritted teeth, his eyes still warily trained on Lily.  
“I got cursed for that! Is it true you have a crush on my cousin Narcissa?”  
“Sirius, focus!” Lily interrupted impatiently. “In case you’ve forgotten, James is still missing!”  
“James is fine.” Sirius reassured her. Then he added teasingly: “He’ll be even more fine when he sees how much you care.”  
“Of course I care, he’s my friend.” Lily straightened up, crossing her arms defensively. “He’s also not here, so how can you be so sure he’s fine?”  
“Erm, I’m alright, really.” James came up behind Lily, giving them all an embarrassed wave. Lily turned around, her eyes wide, and threw herself into his arms.  
Then she seemed to recollect herself, because she quickly let go and put an arms-length of space between them.  
“Where were you? What happened?”  
“I saw Snivellus drag you away, so I tried to follow, but by the time I got away it was too late.” James explained. “When I couldn’t find you I came back here, and…”  
“So who was screaming just now?” Marlene asked, wiping the last of the rain from her eyes. The floods had stopped as fast as they’d started.  
“That would’ve been me.” Avery put in. “Randall wasn’t too happy that you guys had escaped, so he hit me with a curse or two.”  
“I never knew your name was Randall.” Marlene frowned at Mulciber. “That is _so_ weird.”  
They argued over what to do with the Slytherins for a minute; Sirius being in favor of Confunding them and letting them find their own way home, while James insisted on tying them to a tree and leaving.  
They ended up doing both, happily explaining to professor McGonagall that they had “No idea whatsoever, Professor!” why the three boys only made it back to the castle well after dinner, incoherently mumbling the Marauders’ names.


	21. Summer Love

It is one thing to _realise_ that you’re in love with someone, but it is another one entirely to _act_ on that realisation.  
After the Apparition exam, something seemed to have shifted within Lily. Where before she had liked spending time with James, now she seemed to hate every minute they were apart. Where before she had thought he was occasionally funny, now she found herself laughing at every joke he told. And where before she had agreed that he wasn’t terrible-looking, she now found herself studying his profile, wondering what it would feel like to run her hands through his unruly black hair.  
The only problem was that she had been vehemently denying to everyone (not in the least to James himself) that she was even remotely interested in him, and it now seemed practically impossible to admit that she had been wrong. She could perfectly imagine Sirius’ self-satisfied grin, Mary’s I-told-you-so’s and Marlene’s bemused surprise.  
Yet if she was honest with herself, the real reason she hadn’t said anything wasn't pride, but fear. Because despite Sirius’ assurances, she was no longer sure that James regarded her as anything other than a friend.

It is one thing to _tell yourself_ someone won’t ever love you back, but it is another one entirely to _stop_ yourself from foolishly hoping anyway.  
James told himself firmly that it meant nothing if Lily seemed to spend more time with him than she did any of their other friends. It was pure coincidence she always ended up sitting beside him at dinner. And though she had kissed him after they’d won the Quidditch final, it had surely been nothing more than a congratulatory peck.  
And yet, when he caught her staring at him whenever she thought he wasn’t looking, the armour he’d built around his heart suddenly felt flimsy and weak.  
He was doodling in the margins of his Transfiguration textbook, trying not to think about Lily, when someone sat down in the sofa next to him.  
“What’s up, Prongs?” Peter bumped his shoulder against James’.  
“I’m bored.” James grumbled, subtly sweeping his hands across his book to hide the doodles. “I wish I still had Quidditch.”  
“Right…” Peter grinned. “You sure there’s nothing else? Or no _one_ else?”  
“Who else would there be?” James asked off-handedly.  
“I don’t know, mate, who else could there _possibly_ be?" Peter sounded annoyed. "You think we don’t hear you tossing and turning all night? You think I don’t see you mooning after Lily every time she’s in the room?”  
“I do not…” James spluttered.  
“Course you don’t.” Peter nodded at his doodles, surrounded by interlocking L's and E's. “And I’m sure that’s all about Linus Earhart’s transfiguration models, and not a certain redhead we know.”  
“It’s _Litmus Carhartt_, come on Wormtail, this was a question on last year’s exam!” James complained, hoping to distract Peter.  
“Look, just talk to her, alright?” Peter continued seriously. “We’d all like to get a good night’s sleep again, instead of listening to you drivelling about Lily in your sleep.”  
With a sympathetic slap on the back, he left James to his thoughts.

“This is getting beyond ridiculous.” Remus told Sirius.  
It was Peter’s seventeenth birthday, and they were watching James and Lily skirting around each other like oppositely polarised magnets. Both clearly wanted to resolve things, but neither dared to make the first step.  
“I’m of half a mind to just let you go through with one of your daft plans.”  
“None of my plans are daft!” Sirius argued. “You are just unaware of the subtle genius.”  
“If I remember correctly, one of them was to trap them in a cupboard until they “snog it out”.” Remus air quoted. “That’s hardly subtle, let alone genius.”  
“Ah, but you can’t deny that it would work! And in the end, that’s all I care about.”  
“Are you guys talking about those two?” Mary asked, leading Samuel over as well. “It’s a bloody mess, isn’t it?”  
“My thoughts exactly.” Sirius said. “We were just discussing what to do about it.”  
“Not much to do about it at all, if you ask me.” Samuel shrugged. “Seems like a lost cause.”  
“Don’t be silly, love. They’ve been circling each other all night, they obviously want things to work out.” Mary pointed out.  
“Well then why don’t they just… work it out?” He asked impatiently.  
“Because not everyone is as direct as you are.” Mary smiled, affectionately patting his cheek.  
“Maybe we should…” Sirius started, but at that moment their scheming was interrupted by Peter and James calling them all over for a game of Exploding Snap.

The last week of June went by in a blur. The Marauders took advantage of the classes being dismissed by getting in a last run of pranks, and Ravenclaw won the House Cup by 20 points ("Everyone knows the Quidditch Cup is the only one that matters anyway!" Marlene was heard shouting over the blue table's cheers).  
Before they knew it, the Hogwarts Express was rolling into Hogsmeade Station, ready to take the students home for the summer.  
The Marauders had taken possession of their usual compartment at the back of the train, and were soon joined by Mary and Marlene. The girls gave Sirius a surreptitious nod. He yawned dramatically, stretching his arms above his head.  
“I think I’ll go and stretch my legs for a second.” He grinned brightly, ignoring Remus’ annoyed frown.  
“Where’s Lily?” James inquired after Sirius had closed the door.  
“Well that didn’t take long.” Marlene snorted, earning her an elbow in the side from Mary.  
“I’m glad you’ve brought up the subject.” Mary started. “Since Lily isn’t here for a second, we’d like to take this opportunity to stage an intervention.”  
“A what, now?” James looked to his friends for an explanation.  
“An intervention.” Remus sighed. “Because even I can’t take this anymore.”  
“You see, you've managed to drive even Saint Lupin insane.” Mary turned a stern gaze on James. “Because you, James Potter, are an idiot.”  
A loaded silence settled over the compartment.  
Marlene cleared her throat loudly. “For what it’s worth, we think Lily’s an idiot, too.”  
“Though not as big an idiot as you.” Peter corrected.  
“So does this intervention entail anything other than calling me an idiot?” James frowned. “Because so far I’m not really into it.”  
“Look, James, you like Lily.” Marlene held up her hand to silence his rebuttal. “There’s no need to deny it. You know it, we know it, the teachers know it, the _house elves_ know it. Frankly, the only person at Hogwarts who doesn’t seem to know it is Lily herself.”  
“Which is why we think she’s also an idiot.” Marlene clarified.  
“Now, liking someone is all well and good.” Mary continued, ignoring Marlene. “But if you want it to ever be more than daydreams and longing gazes, you’ll have to stop being an idiot!”  
By now, James was glowering at her, his arms crossed defensively in front of his body.  
“Are you quite finished?”  
“Not remotely. Do you know why I think you’re an idiot?”  
“Because I like someone who doesn’t like me back?”  
The four other people in the compartment groaned loudly.  
“I think idiot may be too kind a word for him.” Peter said to Mary.  
“What about obtuse, dull, heavy-headed dimwit?” Marlene suggested.  
“Not helping, Marlee.” Mary frowned.  
“Oh sorry, I’m not here to help.” Marlene grinned. “I just wanted a chance to insult people.”  
Mary closed her eyes for a second, demanding every Muggle deity she could remember for patience.  
“Lily does like you back.” Mary said, her focus on James again. “But you’re not really making it easy for her, are you?”  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” James said, his arms dropping. “Lily’s always made it perfectly clear that she doesn’t like me. Not in the way I like her, anyway.”  
He was met with four pairs of raised eyebrows.  
“And what do you mean, _I’m_ not making it easy for _her_?” He added with a frown.  
Mary heaved an exaggerated sigh.  
“I’m going to let you in on a little secret here, so pay attention. If the girl you like kisses you, you kiss her back. You do _not_ tell her how great a friend she is.”  
“I didn’t…” James blushed, remembering that he had, in fact, done just that.  
“Hush, I’m not finished! If the girl you like asks you how you like her new hairstyle, you say it’s nice, not that you don’t notice anything different - I don’t care if you didn’t notice it, now shut it, I’m still talking - and if she asks you to go on a walk with her, you definitely don’t invite someone else along!”  
Put together like that, James had the sinking feeling that maybe he had been putting his foot in it every now and then.  
“You mean… Lily likes me?” He asked Mary, still a hint of doubt in his voice.  
“No, I mean Lily is _in love_ with you.”  
“Or in her own words, she’s obsessed with your stupid face.” Marlene added.  
“And the only reason she hasn’t outright told you, is because you keep telling her how much you value her bloody friendship.”  
“So basically, you’re an idiot.” Peter nodded empathically.  
“I..” James looked from Mary to Peter in horror. “I’m an idiot.”  
Marlene whooped loudly. “We should do these interventions more often, this is fun!”  
James sprang up, his hair disarrayed from having grabbed at it moments before.  
“I need to… I’m going to find Lily.”  
“Please do, and don’t come back here until you’ve snogged it out!” Marlene called after him.  
“See, Remus, Sirius’ plan will work out after all.” Mary smiled smugly.

“I still can’t really believe this is the last time we’ll ride this train.” Alice gazed at the passing landscape wistfully.  
“You have so many exciting things to look forward to though!” Lily nudged her. “It’s amazing you both made the Auror programme. Not that I doubted you guys for a second, of course.”  
“Well, I sure did.” Frank smiled. “Though the thought of having to tell my mother I didn’t make it definitely helped to hone my focus.”  
“Your mother can be a bit scary sometimes.” Alice agreed. “I thought she was going to hex me the first time we met.”  
“Nah, she loves you! She’s just a tough-love sort of woman.”  
“So do you have any big plans this summer, before you’ll be stuck in training?” Lily asked.  
Frank and Alice exchanged a meaningful glance.  
“Well, it might not be this summer, but…” Alice smiled widely. “We’re getting married!”  
“What? Congratulations!” Lily hugged them both, trying not to dwell on the fact that they’d only really been dating for a few months. “I’m so happy for you guys!”  
“We haven’t actually told anyone yet, so our parents are in for a big surprise.” Frank grinned, his hand clasped around Alice’s. She looked lovingly up at him, and Lily felt like the compartment no longer required her presence.  
“Three’s a crowd, I think I’ll leave you guys to discuss details.” Lily winked and mouthed “write me” at Alice.  
As she exited the compartment she almost bumped into Sirius.  
“Ah, Evans, fancy seeing you here.” He grinned amiably. “I was just headed back to our compartment, want to come?”  
“Sure, I was heading that way, too.”  
“So, I was thinking…” Sirius started.  
“Never a good sign.” Lily responded, apprehension clear in her tone.  
“I don’t know where you live.”  
“Huh.” That’s not what she had been expecting. “In Cokeworth. Why do you suddenly care where I live?”  
“I was just thinking maybe we could visit you over the summer. You know, me... and James. What would you do without us for an entire summer?”  
“Have fun?”  
“Don’t be like that, Lily.” Sirius complained. “I'm trying to help you out here!”  
"Sirius, no offense, but your help hasn't actually gotten me anywhere so far."  
“But it's about to.” Sirius grinned maniacally.  
"What have you done?" Lily stopped in her tracks and pulled Sirius back. "I asked you not to get involved!"  
"I know, but if I left it up to you, this would never get resolved. So, we just gave James a dumbed-down explanation of why he's an idiot."  
"We?" Lily asked shrilly. "Could you have made this any more embarrassing?"  
“Yes, so be grateful.” Sirius tutted. “Now, I'll be giving you your own little intervention. Lily Evans, you are an idiot. James is never going to realise you're into him if you don't spell it out for him. He's an idiot like that, you'll make a great pair. So please, if not for your own sake, then do it for mine: just _talk_ to him."  
“I am going to kill you, Sirius Black." Lily whispered furiously.  
“It'll have to wait! Here comes James now.” Sirius turned Lily by the shoulders so she could see James determinedly make his way over to them. “Anyway, good luck, I’ll see you guys later. Remember, you’re a Gryffindor! Make me proud!”  
He gave James a subtle thumbs-up and then quickly made his way out.  
Lily became acutely aware that they were stood in the middle of the train corridor, in full view of the occupied compartments. She spotted an empty one a few doors down, so she grabbed James’ hand and pulled him inside.  
“James, I need to tell you something!” She burst out, at the same time he said: “I'm an idiot.”  
“What?” Lily tried to gather her thoughts, but between her heart beating out of her chest and James eyes making her knees weak, it seemed like words had deserted her.  
"I'm an idiot!" James repeated. "I didn't realise that you liked me, and now maybe you think I don't like you, but I do! I really, really do..." He trailed off, Lily's beaming smile scattering his thoughts. As she took a step forward, Lily thought to herself: _Be a Gryffindor._  
“I’m going to kiss you now, if that’s alright.” She announced in a husky whisper, and before her courage deserted her, she stood on the tip of her toes and did just that.

James hurried into the Marauders’ compartment just as the train pulled into King’s Cross Station.  
After one look at his face, Sirius let out a cheer. “Finally!”  
“Good on you, Prongs.” Peter clapped him on the back, while Remus smiled: “I’m happy for you, Prongs, it was about time.”  
“You can thank me later, when you tell me all the details.” Sirius grinned, enthusiastically thumping James on the shoulder.  
“Leave him alone, you.” Remus grinned, pulling Sirius away and leaving James to grab his things. They made their way to the doors, fingers entwined.  
Still grinning, Sirius pulled Remus in for one last kiss before they stepped off the train.  
“I’ll be counting the days till we meet again.” He sighed dramatically, resting their foreheads together.  
“The whole three days?” Remus smiled.  
Sirius grinned back. For the first time in his life, he was actually looking forward to the summer. “It’ll be the three longest days of my life.”  
They descended the train, letting their hands fall apart as each went to meet their own family.  
Mr and Mrs Potter greeted Sirius warmly, commenting on how grown he looked.  
“Where has that scruffy little urchin of mine gone?” Mrs Potter asked a little wistfully, affectionately looking up into Sirius’ face.  
“I believe you fed him too many biscuits.” Sirius smiled, quietly pleased as she patted his cheeks.  
Over at the other side of the platform, Samuel and Marlene were greeted by the sight of their mother standing alone.  
“Where’s dad?” Samuel frowned.  
“It’s good to see you too, son.” Mrs McKinnon said reproachfully as she pulled him in for a hug.  
“Hi, mum.” Marlene stepped in to hug her mother next. “Where is dad, though?”  
“Your dad… wasn’t really feeling up to it.” Their mother looked away uncomfortably. “He has taken Danny’s death very hard.”  
“Hard how?” Samuel demanded while Marlene asked: “Why didn’t you mention any of this in your letters?”  
“I didn’t want to worry you children at school.”  
“I’m seventeen! I’m not a child, mum.” Marlene exclaimed.  
“You will always be my child, Lena.” Mrs McKinnon smiled sadly. “I want to ask you both to be gentle with your father this summer. I’m afraid you’ll find him quite changed.”  
Samuel and Marlene shared a worried look as they hoisted up their trunks and followed her out of the station.  
Lily said goodbye to Mary distractedly as her eyes scanned the platform for a crop of unruly black hair. Sirius’ earlier comment had suddenly come back to her as she stepped off the train and she wanted to make sure to remedy it.  
“Bye, Lily! Hope this obsession has lessened after the summer.” Mary muttered, her friend completely oblivious, as she made her way off the platform.  
Lily spotted Sirius talking to James’ parents, but the boy himself didn’t seem to be with them. With a frustrated sigh she turned around and nearly ran face-first into the person she was looking for.  
“James!” She exclaimed. “Hi! I was just looking for you.”  
“Looks like you found me.” He smiled, his hand moving through his hair.  
“I found you.” Lily repeated, a blush creeping up her face as she looked up at him. Her eyes were drawn to his lips.  
“So, why were you looking for me?” He prodded when she didn’t continue, his smile telling her he knew exactly where her thoughts had gone. Lily felt her face flame even more.  
“Er, right. I…” She stuttered, trying to remember what she’d wanted to say. He really had a very nice mouth.  
“Are you alright? Are you having a stroke or something?” He took a step towards her, mock concern on his face.  
“Oh, shut up, Potter.” She grinned, and pulled him in for a kiss. Better to get it out of her system right away.  
James pulled her close to him and kissed her back passionately, marvelling over the fact that this was something he got to do now.  
When they broke apart she pushed a piece of parchment in his hand.  
“Come see me sometime this summer, yeah?” She smiled at his dazed look. “We should… talk.”  
Giving him one last peck on the lips she ran outside, cheeks burning bright and an uncontrollable grin on her face.  
James watched her walk away, a soaring feeling in his chest, not quite believing he hadn’t dreamt up the last few hours.  
He looked down at the piece of parchment and grinned. It read:

_26 Old Field Road_  
_Cokeworth_  
_Derbyshire_

The paper clutched tight in his fist he made his way over to his parents, who were beaming at him next to an excited Sirius, and thought to himself that this might just end up being the best summer of his life.


End file.
